✨ Immigration Report
OTAGO
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
GAZETTE.
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY.
All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereunto annexed are to be considered as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they may relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.
JAMES MACANDREW, Superintendent.
VOL. IV.] SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1860. [No. 127.
IMMIGRATION REPORT.
Immigration Department,
Superintendent\'s Office,
Dunedin, 17th November 1860.
To His Honor the Superintendent.
SIR,—I beg to lay before your Honor a report relative to the present state of Immigration.
- NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS.
During the months of August, September, and October, there were landed at Dunedin 981 assisted immigrants; but, in addition to these, vessels from London, Glasgow, Australia, and the Sister Provinces are constantly adding to the population of the Colony, which cannot now be far short of 12,500 souls.
- HOW EMPLOYED.
The disposal of the 981 immigrants, and the 120 passengers by the ship "Bruce," has been a very easy task. Single men, accustomed to agricultural and pastoral pursuits, are engaged at £50 per annum, with rations; and those who have not found an immediate engagement are at once employed on public works, at from 5s. to 6s. per diem.
The above number includes 140 domestic servants, but so great has been the demand for this class of labour, that I may truly say the demand is rather increasing than diminishing.
These domestic servants have been in general been engaged within four days after landing, and at wages varying from £20 to £28 per annum.
There is one class of persons whom it is difficult to employ, viz., clerks, teachers, storekeepers, porters, &c. Such persons as have only been accustomed to a town life, are ill qualified to meet the many difficulties of a new and arduous struggle. These persons, though they are never sent to Otago by the Home Agents, yet they often spend their all in securing a passage in our immigrant ships. They are seldom employed by private individuals, and fancy they have an equal claim on the Government for public work with those who have been approved and selected by the Home Agents as suitable labourers, whereas the employment of such persons on the roads (even at the lowest wages) is a public loss.
Another class of persons whom I think it impolitic to send to the Colony for the next few years, viz., shepherds and ploughmen with large families of young children. No doubt such men follow a calling which is well paid in this Colony, but then they are so circumstanced by their children that few masters will engage them; and I would suggest to your Honor the propriety of restricting the Agents for some time to families of three children, when the eldest child is under twelve years of age.
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Otago Provincial Gazette 1860, No 127
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🛂 Immigration Report regarding the state of immigration in Otago
🛂 Immigration17 November 1860
Immigration, Labour, Employment, Dunedin, Statistics, Assisted immigrants