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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 inany capacities similar to that which she invites them to fill . The prison of Neudorf , 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 .
vrith vestry business , and with the relations usually subsisting between the pauper and the rate-payer—does not the latter avenge Mmself sufficiently for having to pajr the rates , an . < L is not the former well punished for receiving them ? If there is to be a reform , vte 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 women . Associated with them are schoolmasters and chaplains , in general totally inefficacious , saysv ' Mia . Jajieson " . * v "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 "b y 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 voman almost as deerepid , 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 andbeer . It may be imagined whab sort of attention the miserable invalids
receive . Now , as in 1854 there were more than fifty thousand inmates of the London workhouses ( exclusive of Marylebone ) under medical treatment , we conceive that they form a class sufficiently important to possess a claim on the public sympathy . "We should be glad to learn how seventy paid , and fire hundred unpaid pauper 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 neglected , and implored in vain to be turned in their beds . " They matron is aware that these evils exist , but has no power to remedy them know what
. "We description of persons sink , from time to time , into this ' last home of the poor , ' and we 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 workhouse 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 that fallacy 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-• wottME pixo ^ B . Biography of John Howard , was to . demoralize the inmates , and to protect to ntereB taofnoone . *; JT have , said that Mrs . Jamhson has a distinct remed y to propose . It is to the effect snac a superior cltum nfmnm ^ „! t . i i _ nuuiou
l . j , _ 1 j _ i-. BLIUIUU UB 1 USSf ^ th . ™ rWl ° u e fl as matrons , SSS / Ii nS 8 , lBtant « - Her evidence in Savour of this scheme is abundant , and not
This is a matter which ought , at least , to be discussed . Probably , less notice is bestowed on the pauper population than on any other class . To the well-fed world they are very uninteresting persons—far less interesting than criminals . Let us thank Mrs . Jameson , then , for her hook , which is womanly and free from cant , and very enerr getic and impressive .
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When he first visited New Zealand it -was a picturesque wilderness , inhabited by Bavages and escaped convicts . "Now , the nlace has arrived at so high a state of perieefcion , that it is really marvellous to look upon . " Allowing for the purple light of the Kippoerene , that only blushes for itself and not for what it hears , the statement is accurate enough . Sir Geoege Grits : 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 see the High Sheriff present the judge three 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 . Johk Pakingrosr , John RxrssExi ., and W . J . Fox had carried their Bills at the Antipodes years agp ., Many of them are large landed proprietors—proprietors of land -which they have actually repurchased from those ] Europeans to whom , in the first inst anc e , they had often sold it at farcical prices . They are also large proprietors of stock . Every word of the following is of historical interest : —
The finest hreed of horses in the colony belongs to tie natives ; and . I may mention an instance in which the successful owner—a Liverpool merchant , Mr . Hkkson , I mention his name , as he probably will tie known to some of you here—of a very celebrated horse ¦ which , at the races , carried every thing tefore him , was tendered by the . natives , to my own knowledge , a hag of five hundred sovereigns , to improve their stock . Surely , this is very important , and goes far to establish : the superiority long claimed for the New Zealand nation .
New Zealand , according to this practical exponent of her position , is in want of labour , a , nd 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 "Victoria 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
boundless ; the natives have been conciliated , and no longer harass the cultivated borders . If labour could he obtained where employment is offered , no British possessions would have better prospects than those young 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 Grecian eloquence , " that , after a splendid voyage . of six months , this noble vessel will be seen again gliding xipon the Mersey , with four thousand bales of our New Zealand wool !"
THE NEW COMMERCE OF LITERPOOL . Thebe were great festivities last week at the second seaport of England . Baines and Company had founded a new commerce- — built 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 JIobebt 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 withBritishmanufactures . Also , to encourage emigration to those islands , so healthy , so rich , and yet , comparatively , so neglected . Tor 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 . Baines are building a New 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 New "World , even to halfinhabited islands , where someprogress is made , and where some populations change from , worse to better . Mr . Smith , of Wellington , therefore , is a welcome herald . His health
was proposed by Mr . T . M . Maokay , the chairman , who displayed all the facility of a barrel organ in varying the notes of his oratory-rj-now extolling the Queen , now denying the _ right of kinga to govern wrong , now sprinkling -with frothy praise the purple of the Empire , now lavishing his love on Piedmont , and then apologizing for Prince Albeet . However , tew 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 . Magkay , relieved at lengtlt from the burden of incoherent platitude , claimed the honours for " Mr . Smith , of Wellington , " seventeen years' a Now Zealand colonist . Mr . Smith , in his reply , said what we wish to repeat .
Persons afraid to emigrate , afraid of the dull novelties of colonial life , may take down the evidence of Mr . G-. Tbain , ' an American-Australian , ' whom we may credit , wo fancy , with the authorship of two recent * volumes . No place in the world satisfies Mr . Thajn so well as Melbourne . Ho onco started on a voyage of comparative observation , saw Java > Singapore , Calcutta , a thousand miles of tho
Indian coast , went back to Melbourne , and found there was no place nice it . Then ho ' got at' Aden , Alexandria , Cairo , Joppa , Jerusalem , and Jericho , but Molboumo was still uppermost in his fancy . iSfext , through Syria and Palestine , to Cyprus , Latakia , Beyrout , Acre , Tripoli , Marseilles , Constantinople , with the same result . Lastly , to Kanuesch and the Crimea , and through the Continent ; but his KeTbleh was still in Australia . So that colonial lifo is not altogether monotonous or uncouth .
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926 THE . LEADER . [ No . 340 , SAginti > AY
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 926, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2160/page/14/
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