5 CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING EMIGRATION. I sincerely trust, whenever your Lordship may have time to give consideration to the sub- ject of settlement, and the providing suitable facilities for the encouragement of immigrants to locate themselves in this province, as well as the removal of any obstacle which may be found to exist, that under the powerful protection of your Excellency, I shall have it in my power ere long to report, for the information of the King's Government, results gratifying to every wellwisher to the prosperity of the Canadas and the mother country. I am happy to state very few complaints of ill treatment on the part of ship- masters to emigrants have been reported at this office during the past season. It is to be hoped that more attention will in future be given by the officers of the customs in Ireland, in order to ascertain that the law in regard to a proper supply of provisions on board emigrant ships before sailing has been complied with. I had reason to notice a few instances on the part of agents of a want of attention on this head, particularly in the case of the brig Thomas Spright, Captain Gorman, from Limerick. The attention of the Government agents lately appointed at the principal ports in the United Kingdom will no doubt be directed to check the evil complained of. Your Lordship, by referring to a copy of a letter addressed by me to Mr. Hay, Under Secretary of State ( see App. p. 23), will perceive the suggestions which I have taken the liberty of making in reference to this part of the subject. I am glad to report to your Lordship the passing of the Amended Passengers' Act by the Imperial Parliament, which I had the honour last year to bring under the consideration of His Majesty's Government. I regret that one or two clauses have been omitted which, if adopted, would have made the Act, in my humble opinion, as perfect as legislation can effect, with due regard to the liberty of the subject. As the law stands, if the public authorities in the United Kingdom and the Colonies responsible for protecting emigrants do their duty, very little inconvenience from the improper conduct of brokers or ship- masters can arise. 1 cannot permit the present opportunity to pass without soliciting your Lordship's serious consideration as to the expediency of not renewing the tax imposed upon emigrants arriving in Lower Canada from the United Kingdom, which will expire on the 1st May 1836. In my report of last year I offered my humble opinion as to its injurious conse- quences to voluntary immigrants into the Canadas, to which part of my report I would solicit your Lordship's attention in the present Session. Notwithstanding the favourable re- commendation the tax may have obtained from your Excellency's predecessor, a deep sense of public duty, arising from the practical errors and inconvenience which I have witnessed in its operation, compels me to a close adherence to the reasons for its abolition which I have already expressed on the subject. Your Lordship will observe on referring to Paper No. 5, in the Appendix, a statement of the number of British emigrants arrived at New York within the present year. The instructions which I have caused to be printed for the information of those coming by that route have been freely and gratuitously distributed, by aid of the British Consulate of that city, and I am glad to find that a large portion has proceeded to the Upper Province. The exaggerated accounts circulated of the territory of Michigan being so superior for settlement, coupled with the fact that the price of land there and in the neighbouring states of Missouri and Illinois is less than in Upper Canada, have had the effect of drawing several British immigrant families thither in the early part of the season ; some have since seen their error, and have removed into the western part of the Upper Province for settlement. I will here venture to state as my humble opinion, with every deference to his Excellency the Lieutenant- governor, that if the upset price of the Crown lands in Upper Canada were fixed at a lower rate than that now in practice, or on terms equally low as in the state of Michigan and the adjoining territory, many British immigrants would be deterred from pro- ceeding thither, and I do think the general prosperity and settlement of the Upper Province would be materially benefited. I sincerely trust, my Lord, that in whatever regulations your Excellency may be pleased to recommend in regard to the quarantine station at Grosse Isle, the indispensable necessity of ensuring a sufficient supply of wholesome well water for the use of the emigrants who may be obliged to stop there will be attended to. A very trifling outlay will be sufficient to ensure this article of first necessity to their health and comfort. It will have the effect of preventing their being compelled, as heretofore, to use the river water, rendered still more odious and unwholesome from the washing and unavoidable purification which takes place whenever a number of emigrants, with their baggage, is disembarked after a long sea voyage. I would further venture to repeat the suggestion which I had the honour to submit last year, in relation to the great hardships to which emigrants in good health are subjected by being compelled to land at Grosse Isle. " Even in vessels having on board suspicious cases of indisposition, or even decided sickness, it perhaps might be advisable that the healthy emigrant, after undergoing the inspection of the medical officer, should not be required to land, but only the actually sick; and that the vessel and passengers' baggage should be purified and cleansed at the expense and on the responsibility of the captain. The advantage of this regulation would be, that the captain, aware of the consequences of inattention to cleanliness during the voyage, namely, inevitable detention at Grosse Isle, would exert himself to the utmost to keep his ship while at sea in such a state of cleanliness as to ensure permission to proceed to Quebec after the inspection of the medical officer at Grosse Isle. The latter will of course still retain his discretionary power, and the detention of the vessel still continue until he should consider it in a proper state to proceed, after the complete purification, if such should be found necessary, had been gone through." 7G. B I trust No. 1. LOWER CANADA. Report Emigration. 12 Dec. 1835. on Appendix, No. 5.