CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING EMIGRATION. 41 No. i. EXTRACT of a DESPATCH from Lieutenant- governor Arthur to Mr. Secre- VAN DIEMEN'S tary Spring Rice; dated Van Diemen's Land, Government House, 25th LAND. May 1835. Desp^ from Lieut.- gov. Arthur « Sir, to Mr. Secretary " I HAD the honour in my despatch of the 26th February last to report the Spring Rice, arrival of the Sarah, with female immigrants, and the favourable auspices under 25 May 1835. which these interesting new colonists commenced their settlement; and I have now the pleasure of transmitting for your perusal the Report of the Ladies' Committee, in which you will find some very excellent practical remkrks, cal- culated to be useful in guiding the exertions of the Board entrusted in England with the duty of selecting persons deserving of the protection of the Govern- ment. I may allude in an especial manner to the comment upon the practice of sending out very young girls from the workhouses, schools of industry, or reform or other charitable institutions. " Nothing could be more satisfactory than the result of this last experi- ment ; and it may be proper I should add, that in addition to the vessel which I suggested should be sent to Launceston, another would now be exceedingly acceptable at this port. " The interest which has been taken by the Ladies' Committee in providing for the settlement of these immigrants, will, I am sure, be fully appreciated by His Majesty's Government." REPORT OF THE LADIES' COMMITTEE. THE Ladies Committee for advising and assisting female emigrants on their arrival in this Report of the colony beg leave to report, for the information of his Excellency the Lieutenant- governor, Ladies' Committee. that all the emigrants by the ship Sarah are now engaged in situations or otherwise esta- _ blished, as the list furnished by Mr. Everett to the Colonial Secretary will more particularly show. With the exception of the few who remained on board the ship, the whole of them were very soon dispersed, the inhabitants evincing so much anxiety to secure their services, that from 30 to 40 were engaged the same day they landed; and even long after they were all provided for, applications for servants continued to be made at this establishment. Whether this was occasioned by the report which soon prevailed, that the emigrants by this vessel were of a more useful description of servants than any who had previously arrived in the colony, or whether it was owing to the general want of servants at that time of any kind, the committee do not pretend to determine ; but they are inclined to believe it was more to be attributed to the former than the latter cause. That the largest proportion of females by this ship are of a description better suited to the • wants of the colony than any that have yet been sent out by the Government there can be no dispute. The selection generally evinces great discrimination and good sense on the part of the person entrusted to make it. These emigrants more nearly approximate to the class of women so much required in this colony for servants in settlers' families, and for wives to the lower ranks of life, than any others who have heretofore arrived under similar circumstances. They consist chiefly of sober, industrious, hard- working women, such as are in England commonly styled " servants of all work " most of them can cook, wash and bake, and are able to make themselves useful in a family. The greater number of those who have before classed themselves under the denomination " servants of all work," have in truth been " servants of no work," for they have generally proved to be drunken and idle, and alike incapable and unwilling to undertake the duties performed by such servants; in fact, they have seldom remained in any respectable family where they have been placed, having been soon discharged as worse than useless, or themselves quitting their service to follow a disreputable course of life. There is one most important point to which the Ladies' Committee feel pecularly anxious to call the attention of those to whom the Home Government delegate the direction and management of female emigration : it is the practice of sending out to this colony very young girls from the workhouses, schools of industry, or reform or other charitable insti- tutions. The committee have experienced the most painful solicitude respecting many of those who have arrived in every ship with female emigrants; and although they have exercised their best care, by endeavouring to place them in such families where they would be protected from evil, yet it is lamentable to observe the number of these young girls in this town who have deviated from the paths of virtue. The committee are induced to make this representation from the great difficulty they have always found in procuring information in respectable families for girls from 14 to 16 years of age: few persons are willing to take them as servants, and it has frequently happened that after having been placed by the committee in a situation where they would be taken care of, ,76, f 3 many