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926 THE LEADER, (TNfo. 340, Saturday
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THE NEW COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL. Theru wer...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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wifch vestry business , and with the relations usually subsisting between the pauper and the rate-payer—does not the latter avenge himself sufficiently for having to pay the rates , and is not the former well punished for receiving them ? If there is to be a reform , we think the spirit of the parochial electors must come under its operation . Next to the rate-payers are the guardians , the police of poverty ^ and next to these , the masters and matrons—sometimes a retired constable
and his wife , or the keeper of a beer-shop , or a promoted porter , excellent persons often , but not qualified for the moral government of a large number of men and woinen . Associated with them are schoolmasters and chaplains , in general totally inefficacious , says Mrs . JjorESorNV .. " In a great and well-ordered workhouse , under conscientious management , " she
inspected sixteen wards , each with from fifteen to twenty-five inmates—sick , aged , bedridden , idle , or helpless—and each superintended by a nurse and a ' helper , ' nominally selected , from the least immoral and drunken of the _ female paupers . The nurses were from sixty-five to eighty years of age , while their assistants were usually younger . In another workhouse ten bedridden old
women were nursed by a feeble pauper of seventy , with an assistant nearly blind . In another , eight paralytic patients were nursed by a woman almost as decrepid , and a girl with one hand . . In a third the nurse had a wooden leg . Sometimes , when a female pauper is particularly infirm , she is appointed as nurse , that she may be privileged to receive a little tea and beer . It may be imagined what sort of attention the miserable invalids
receive . Now , as in 1854 there -were more than fifty thousand inmates of the London workhouses ( exclusive of Maryleb one ) under medical treatment , we conceive that they form a class sufficiently important to possess a claim on the public sympathy . "W " should be glad , to learn how Beventy paid , and five hundred unpaidpauper nurses , can perform for these poor creatures the commonest offices of humanity . Frequently the nurse is put to bed intoxicated , in the ward in which she is
expected to exercise a salutary authority . In one workhouse the patients could get no help , whatever except by bribery ; little pittances of tea and sugar left by friends were consumed , in this manner , by the nurse . " Those who would not pay this tax -were neglecfced , and implored in vain to be turned in their beds . " The matron ib aware that these evils exist , but has no power to remedy them . We know what description of persons sink , from time to time , into this ' last home of
the poor , ' and wo shall not be much perplexed to understand why a proud and angry nature chooses suicide , to escape the multiplied degradations of the pauper ' s ward . "Why should oakum picking , for example , be continued as a workhouse employment ? In prisons it is allotted as a form of punishment . In the workiiouse it is allotted upon the plea that to establish other branches of industry would
produce a competition injurious to the independent trades . We had thought thab fallacjr to be exploded . Joseph II . acted ¦ upon it in his regulations for the Maison de Force at Ghent . All work was discontinued that seemed to compete with the manufacturers . The result , as described in Hep-• wo ^ aputon' a Biography of John Howard , ¦ was bo demoraliz e the inmates , and to protect theuitereste ofnoone *
. We have said that Mra . Jameson has a 4 islSS « T J ' ° l ^ - » * a to the effect ^ St ^^^ LYrZ , S jJjf . "Biatanta . Her evidence in lavour of thia scheme is abundant , and not
far from conclusive . We think she will win the faith of the reader -who studies her proposal in connexion with her illustrations . Certain it is , that the evil which exists is serious and disgraceful . Certain it is , also , that the power of women has , been exercised most beneficially in many capacities similar to that which she invites them to fill . The prison , of Neadorf , containing two hundred inmates , some of them , the worst convicts , transported in chains fromYienna , is governed by women , twelve in number , assisted by three chaplains , a surgeon , and a physician ; these gentlemen , however , only paying a daily visit , not sleeping within the walls .
This is a matter which ought , at least , to be discussed . Probably , less notice is bestowed on the pauper population than on any other claBS . To the well-fed world they are very uninteresting persons—far less interesting than criminals . Let us thank Mrs . Jameson , then , for her book , -which is womanly and free from cant , and very energetic and impressive .
926 The Leader, (Tnfo. 340, Saturday
926 THE LEADER , ( TNfo . 340 , Saturday
The New Commerce Of Liverpool. Theru Wer...
THE NEW COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL . Theru were great festivities last week at the second seaport of \ En gland . Baikes and Company had founded a new commercebuilt the good ship Oliver Lang , and invited three hundred gentlemen to rejoice over the prospects of her first voyage , on board the Great Tasmania . The circumstance which gave character- and importance to the proceedings was this :- —Liverpool was about to trade directly , for the first time , with New Zealand , Sir Robebt Peel ' s " Great Britain
of the Southern . Seas . " Liverpool proposes to take wool , hides , copper ore , and other raw materials , from New Zealand , and to supply New . Zealand vuth British manufactures . Also , to encourage emigration to those islands , so healthy , so rieli , and yet , comparatively , so neglected . For a long time London has chiefly monopolized "this branch of commerce , but her junior and rival , of " the Place of the Pool '' has determined to start in competition , and -with that object the Messrs . Bainies are building a N ~ ew Zealand fleet . First in the
line is the Oliver Lang , which has been compelled to leave a hundred and fifty tons of cargo , to follow in the Indian Queen . The experiment , therefore , which was a failure a year ago , now promises to be successful . The Oliver Lang . floated into the river with eight hundred tons of cargo , and three hundred emigrants . This , says the Northern Times , is the largest number of passengers ever conveyed to that colony in a single ship . In the midst of so much that is depressing in the condition of the Old "World , it is a
relief to turn , in the JN " World , even to halfinhabited islands , where someprogress is made , and where some populations change from worse to botfcer . Mr . Smith , of Wellington , therefore , is a welcome herald . His health was proposed by Mr . T . M , Maokat , the chairman , who displayed all the facility of a barrel organ in varying the notes of his oratory— -now oxtolling the Queen , now denying the right of kings to govern wrong , now sprinkling with frothy praise the purple oi
the Empire , now lavishing his love on Piedmont , and then apologizing for Prince Air BEB . T . However , lew men are responsible for the language uttered in connexion with formal toasts . They must utter words , and where sense is impossible , the alternative is obvious . Mr . Maokat , relieved afc length from the burden of incoherent platitude , claimed the honours for " Mr . Smith , of Wellington , " seventeen years a New Zealand colonist . Mr . Smith :, in his reply , Baid what wo wish to xepeat .
When he first visited New Zealand it was a picturesque wilderness , inhabited by savages and escaped convicts . " Now , the nlace has arrived at so high a state of perfection , that it is really marvellous to look upon . " Allowing for the purple light of the BZippoerene , that only blushes for itself and not for wliat it hears , the statement is accurate enough . Sib G-eobge Grey did not exaggerate when he said that in no part of the world are life and property more secure than in New Zealand . " It has been my happiness / ' Mr . Smith continued , " when present as a grand juror in Wellington , to vmvs j . ^ w * ivi * M . fJJ
w ^ v . m-m . . \* a \* ' UJ . J . C ? I UUtfo LiirCC times with a pair of white gloves . " The natives have been advanced a considerable degree of civilization . They read and write , almost to- a man ,- —as though John PAKiifGton , John Rttssbi / l , and W . J . Eox had carried their Bills at the Antipodes years ago . Many of them are large landed proprietors—proprietors of land which they have actually repurchased from those * Europeans to whom , in the first instance , they h ad often sold it at farcical prices . They are also large proprietors of stock . Every word of the following is of historical interest : —• ¦
The finest breed of horses in tie colony belongs to the natives ; and I may mention an instance in -which the successful owner—a Liverpool merchant , Mr . Hickson , I mention his name , as he probably -will be known to some of you here- ^ rof a very celebrated horse which , at . the races , carried everything before him , was tendered , by the natives , to fry own knowledge , a l ) ag of five hundred sovereigns , to improve their stock . Surely , this is very important , and goes far to establish the superiority long claimed for tlie New Zealand nation .
New Zealand , according to this practical exponent of her position , is in want of labour , and in no want of gold . So great are the inducements to the settler , that even from the auriferous fields of Australia a large tide of emigration has set to the port of Wellington . In February and March last , not fewer than two thousand persons took their passages from Yictoria for New Zealand . And why not ? The climate is perfect ,. the harbours are fine , there are abundant mineral resources , the soil is excellent , the . pastures are
ljoundless ; the natives have been conciliated 3 and no longer harass the cultivated borders . If labour could te obtained where employment is oifered , no British possessions would have better prospects than those youug colonies . Such is the path opened from Liverpool by the first voyage of the Oliver Lang . " I expect , " said Mr . Smith , in conclusion , with more than G-recian eloquence , " that , after a splendid voyage of six months , this noble vessel will be seen again gliding upon the Mersey , with four thousand bales of our New Zealand -wool !"
Persons afraid to emigrate , afraid of the dull novelties of colonial life , may take down the evidence of Mr . GK Train , ' an American-Australian , ' wham we may credit , wo fancy , with the authorship of two recent volumes . No place in the world satisfies Mr . Tkain so well as Melbourne . He once started on a voyage of comparative observation , saw Java , Singapore , Calcutta , a thousand miles of tho
Indian coast , went back to Melbourne , ana found there was no place like it . Then ho ' got at' Aden , Alexandria , Cairo , Joppa , Jerusalem , and Jericho , but Melbourne was still uppermost in his fancy . Next , through Syria and Palestine , to Cyprus , Latakia , Beyrout , Acre , Tripoli , Marseilles , Constantinople , with tho same result . Lastly , to Kamicsch and tho Crimea , and through the Continent ; but his Kebloh was Btill in Australia . So that colonial life is not altogether monotonous or uncouth .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27091856/page/14/
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