Illustrated London News
Emigration Reports
1858

	
1858 The Illustrated London News
Oct 30, 1858					Page 405
THE YIELD OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA
From the first discovery of the gold fields in Victoria up to 
the end of last year, the Government escorts had brought down 
to Melbourne 11,457,472 ounces of gold, the value of which is 
estimated at £45,830,000. 
During the above period the total amount of revenue derived 
from the gold-fields, inclusive of the export duty, was nearly 
three millions sterling, out of which about £1,583,000 had been 
expended in making and repairing roads from Melbourne to the 
various gold-fields.

						Page 413
The electric telegraph between Melbourne and Adelaide has been 
completed,and opened formally by the Governors of Victoria and 
South Australia.
Twenty-four thousand pounds a year is to be paid to the Mail 
Steam Packet Company for conveying the mails between Sydney and 
New Zealand, and after four years that sum is to be reduced to 
£22,000.
The Government emigrant ship Daphne sailed from Southampton 
for Sydney, New South Wales, with 330 emigrants, in charge of 
Surgeon-Superintendent Arthur D. White.

Nov 6					Page 428
THE BURNING OF THE "EASTERN CITY" STEAM SHIP
RESCUE OF THE PASSENGERS AND CREW.
The fortunate escape of the crew and passengers of the 
Eastern City will henceforth occupy a prominent place among 
sea disasters which have terminated well. 
The Eastern City was a ship of 1368 tons, bound from Liverpool 
to Melbourne. She left the Mersey on the 10th of July last, having
on board 180 passengers. 47 men, officers and crew, and more than 
1600 tons of general cargo. All went well till the Eastern City
had passed the equator; but on the 23rd of August it was discovered 
that a fire had broken out in the forehold. This was about two in 
the afternoon, and the sea was running high, for the day before there 
had been a heavy gale, and the ship was rolling heavily. 
The captain, Captain Johnstone, whose conduct throughout the 
transaction appears to have been above all praise, at once
ordered all the passengers and crew on deck. All obeyed the 
order save one poor man, who was supposed to have been suffocated 
in his berth. His absence, however, was not noticed at the moment, 
and the forehatch was closed. Through two holes, one on each side of 
the hatch, the ship's company proceeded to pour down tons of water. 
It was of no avail; the fire could not be extinguished; so the next 
attempt was to try to smother it. The hatch was covered with every 
woollen matter on which the people could lay their hands;
but this served only to check, not to remedy, the evil. All the 
night through the men on board kept at their work, while the women 
and children- there were sixty of them- were gathered together on 
the poop, with such small comfort as could be provided for them in 
a burning ship, with death presently at hand. 
The boats were ready, and the captain did his best to persuade his 
luckless passengers that, at all events, there was a refuge for
them; but he knew very well that the boats would never live in the 
sea then on, and, if they could have lived, there was not room in 
them for half his company and passengers. They were 600 miles away 
from land, and out of the usual track of ships, so that the case 
seemed bad indeed. Towards morning it became clear that the fire 
was gaining on the Eastern City, it was working its way into the 
after-hold. Smoke now appeared in the first and second cabins. 
It was sad work, and, as though to mock their misery, the morning
broke beautiful and bright, although the sea was still high. The 
ship was put before the wind, and all on board still worked hard, 
though hope had deserted the ship.
About two o'clock in the afternoon of the 4th the captain and a 
few of the passengers had gone into the after-saloon to get a 
little food. Before goingdown they had scanned the horizon greedily 
enough, no doubt, but they could make nothing of it. The hasty meal
 of which they were partaking was probably to be their last one in 
this world. On a sudden the cry arose on deck, "A sail ! a sail !" 
They all rushed up, but at first nothing could they see,
save a dark cloud on the horizon. Presently they caught sight of 
something white. Was it a sail? Was it a gull? Was it life? 
Was it death? It grew larger, more distinct; there could at length 
be no doubt- they were saved. "She was coming down upon us- close 
by the edge of the sun's rays on the sea; how we all cheered, and 
wept, and prayed, and laughed, and clasped each other's hands and 
cheered again; how great rough fellows hugged each other,
and wept like children; how men who had probably never prayed before
muttered sincere thank-givings; and how those who had  preserved the
greatest indifference when death seemed so near were now completely
overcome!"
Within half an hour from the time the ship was first sighted she 
bore down upon them, and, cheering as only British soldiers and 
sailors can cheer, the ship's company and troops on board the 
Merchantman passed under the stern of the burning ship. As she 
passed Captain Johnstone hailed them through his trumpet.
 "We are on fire. Will you stand by us?" Back came a voice from the
good ship Merchantman, "Ay ! Ay !" In a brief space the boats were 
got out from either ship, and first the women and children were 
transported on board the troopship, then the rest. Two hundred and 
twenty-seven persons were thus rescued from death without a single 
accident to any individual. Every living soul on board the 
Eastern City was saved with the exception of that unfortunate 
man who had been suffocated by the smoke at the outset of the
calamity. At about two a.m., when the troopship stood away, the 
Eastern City was in a bright blaze alow and aloft, and soon 
the masts went, and the burning hull was left to her fate. The last 
her captain and passengers and crew saw of her was a black cloud in 
the distance floating in the morning air.

1858	Nov 13						Page 448
Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners have chartered the 
Commodore Perry, 2143 tons, to sail from Liverpool for 
Melbourne, Victoria, at £13 13s. 9d. per statute adult, to be ready 
for the reception of passengers on such days as the Commissioners 
may appoint between the 10th and 17th of December.

							Page 452
CHINESE EMIGRATION
The Chinese of late, tempted by the gold which has tempted 
Europeans, have invaded, first California, and next Australia, in 
such numbers as to alarm the European settlers and colonists, and 
induce the Legislature in New South Wales and Victoria to take 
strong measures to check the invasion. 
Upwards of 60,000, it is said, are in Victoria; and by the end of 
1853 upwards of 40,000, attended only by their own medical officers, 
were conveyed from Hong-Kong to California. They are leaving their 
country in increasing numbers every year, and are more likely now 
than ever to swarm abroad. 
With the example of the Irish before us, who, driven by poverty and 
not a little oppression from their own homes, have become a very 
influential element of the population of the United States, and 
given an impulse to their policy, we are not surprised at the 
alarm felt both in California and Australia at the arrival there 
of the guides and leaders of a population 300,000,000 strong. 
The Chinese have found their way to central America, and have 
been employed to aid in constructing the railway from Panama. 
They penetrate everywhere. Now it begins to dawn on us that the 
closing of the Celestial Empire against foreigners, and the policy 
of its Government to impede communication, have been advantageous 
to Europeans, by allowing them to obtain a footing in many of the 
countries adjacent to China, while it kept the swarming myriads 
there from swarming over them. 
And many persons may regret the efforts to remove a few of the 
Chinese to the West India Islands, as having shown these active, 
industrious, subtle, and assiduous people their way across the 
ocean to the countries into which the population of Europe is 
now fast flowing. After their long seclusion, or almost isolation,
from the rest of the civilised world, the present breaking forth 
is a remarkable phenomenon, and the history of it, as far as it 
has gone, is one of the curiosities of the blue-books we have 
undertaken to bring occasionally under the notice of our readers.
OUR REGULATIONS
The abolition of slavery in our West India Islands led, first to 
the introduction into them of coolies from Hindostan, and afterwards 
of Chinese.
This traffic was carried on at first without inspection or control, 
and numerous complaints were made- though there was at Hong-Kong 
a West India emigration officer, under the control of the 
Emigration Commissioners in London- of the sufferings and mortality 
of the Chinese on the voyage. Our Parliament then undertook the task 
of making regulations for the voyagers, which is almost as remarkable 
a circumstance as the emigration of the people. 
A Colonial Passengers Act, passed in 1853 (16 and 17 Vic.,cap. 84),
enabled the governors of colonies to make regulations for 
passage-vessels.
In 1855 the Chinese Passenger Act (18 and 19 Vic., cap. 104) was 
passed, requiring a survey to be made of all Chinese passenger-ships, 
limiting the number of persons they were to carry, and prescribing 
the embarkation of a due supply of provisions and medicines. An 
emigration officer was appointed at Hong-Kong, who had to survey 
every passenger-ship, and certify that the requirements of the Act 
were complied with. The Governor of Hong-Kong, under the provision 
of the Act, was authorised to specify the kind and quality of 
provisions, according to the length of the voyage, each ship was 
to have on board; and on this subject very minute regulations were 
made. But, as many emigrants embarked at ports where there were no 
British Consuls, and no emigration agent, the Act was in many cases 
a dead letter. Between November, 1854, and September, 1855, no less 
than 130 square-rigged vessels cleared out from Hong-Kong, with 
14,991 Chines passengers, of whom 10,467 went to Australia, 3042 
to California, and the rest to ports in China or the Indian Ocean. 
Most of them were of a superior class, who paid for their passage.
These, however, seem to have been only a portion of the emigrants, 
for the shipment of them almost ceased from the legal ports, and 
took place at Swatow and Cumsingmoon in non-British shipping, and 
where there are no Consuls. From these and other ports nearly 
11,000 embarked for Cuba, in about the same period, and amongst 
them the mortality before they got to the end of their voyage was 
14 ¾ per cent. Our laws, though well intended, could not cover the 
whole case, and it is somewhat remarkable that the mortality on 
board British vessels engaged in this traffic was greater than the
mortality in other vessels. When we find legislation attains very
imperfectly the objects it aims at more immediately within its scope, 
we cannot be surprised that it should not be successful in dealing 
with things so strange and so remote as the emigration of crowds of 
Chinamen.
BUYING WIVES
One of the reasons why the Chinese emigrants are not liked in 
other countries is that they are nearly all males. They take few 
or no women with them. To obviate this evil the West India emigration 
agent, Mr. White, proposed that the Government should authorise him 
to buy women, and advance him money for this purpose. 
"Girls,"  he said, "of respectable connection may be obtained for 
about forty dollars, of from ten to fifteen years of age,
and I propose to pay this amount to the more respectable emigrants, 
and leave them to make their own arrangements, on condition of their 
marrying the women before the departure of the vessel. There is no 
possibility," he adds, "of obtaining the women without purchase, 
for such is the universal custom of the country." The Emigration 
Commissioners approved of Mr. White's suggestion, understanding that, 
as wives are obtained by purchase in China, he was to provide some of 
the emigrants with the means of thus effecting marriage, taking care 
that the connection thus formed was legitimate and binding according 
to the laws and customs of China. 
The Colonial Secretary, too, the Duke of Newcastle, did not object 
to the proposal, but desired Mr. White to take care that neither 
himself nor his agents were the purchasers of the women. The way his 
Grace proposed to get out of the difficulty was to offer a bounty to 
married emigrants equivalent to the price usually paid for a wife. 
What sums, if any, were extended for this purpose we have not
ascertained. The matter is curious, as illustrating the necessity 
for us, in our dealings with foreigners, to attend to their customs. 
In this case the servants of the State were ready and willing to 
purchase women to emigrate, though it be done, according to the 
Duke of Newcastle's direction, under another name.
OPIUM
A similar case occurs in the scale of provisions ordered. Amongst 
these half an ounce of tobacco daily for each person, and it is 
said opium may be substituted for tobacco. The emigrants, indeed, 
sometimes get discontented if they are deprived of the customary 
use of opium. This the Government is obliged not only  to sanction 
its use, but to provide opium, or order it to be provided, for 
the emigrants, the Earl of Shaftesbury and the anti-opium party 
notwithstanding. To fall in with the customs of the Chinese is
necessary if we would have their services; and, as the two concessions 
now mentioned are opposed to our principles, and we begin to be 
sensible of the danger of being overrun by Chinese, it seems bad 
policy for the Government to organise and promote their emigration 
to the settlements and colonies of Europeans. The mode, too, in 
which they are sometimes collected is not creditable. Chinese 
passage-brokers residing at Hong-Kong, often men of straw, dispatch 
agents to the mainland, who seen to find plenty of persons desirous 
to emigrate, or whom they tempt to emigrate, and who buy of them, 
at five dollars a piece, a bargain-ticket signed by the broker. 
The emigrants then repair to Hong-Kong, where they receive, on 
paying the balance, a passage-ticket for California or Australia. 
The brokers thus collect a great number of emigrants; and, having 
got their money, do not always provide the passage, or they take 
up any old ship that offers. Our Government, in spite of its many 
precautions, seems sometimes to be made instrumental in helping the 
brokers to impose on the emigrants. As it can scarcely prevent all 
abuses, it seems doubtful whether the Legislature should not withdraw 
from the attempt to regulate and organise the emigration
of the Chinese.

1858 cont'....