§ MR. BAUMANN (Camberwell, Peckham)asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether he is aware that emigration agents in this Country refuse to give assisted passages to families, any member of which has received parish relief in any form; and, whether he will endeavour to get this practice altered?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. OSBORNE MORGAN) (Denbighshire, E.)The only Colonies now granting assisted passages to emigrants which insist upon any such conditions as that to which the hon. Member refers are Canada, New South Wales, and Queensland. In the case of New South 1163 Wales such passages are not granted to persons in "habitual receipt of parish relief;" in that of Queensland to those "who have been inmates of workhouses, or who have been in receipt of workhouse relief." The Dominion Government have, since 1884, refused to grant assisted passages to "inmates of workhouses or persons subsisting on workhouse relief." The decision in each case rests, not as the hon. Member seems to think, with emigration agents in this country, but with the Colonies themselves, who are, of course, entitled to prescribe the conditions on which they will vote their own money, and who would naturally, and, as I think, justly, object to any attempt on the part of the Home Government to interfere with those conditions. Certainly, I could not undertake to do what the hon. Member suggests.