Written by N. Dennis
Saturday, 27 November 2010
In 1897, the Government of Canada was about to allow more children to be emigrated to their shores than ever before. Numerous papers and outcries were heard regarding the large scale emigration. Though there are many articles which might have been used as an example here, I feel this one holds the more harsh realities that our BHC felt and knew as they moved away from their past and into their own futures as Canadian citizens.
After reading this, is it any wonder so many chose to remain silent?
"The Manitoba Daily Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Wednesday, November 9, 1897
PAUPER IMMIGRATION
Some days ago, we had occasion to protest against the cool proposition made by the Canadian Gazette, the London organ of the Dominion Government, in favor of dumping the paupers of Great Britain upon Canada. The approval with which our remarks have been met upon all sides makes it very evident that any attempt to carry out such a ruinous scheme will meet with most determined opposition from every man who has a grain of common sense left in his composition. Pauper immigration at any time is a bad thing for the country towards which the pauper's footsteps are directed. Notwithstanding that, a little of it could not break the back of Canada, and if it were confined within reasonable bounds, if no more of such immigrants were sent out than the country could easily assimilate, no one would be heard to complain. But a moderate exportation of these "settlers" is not what our British manufacturers contemplate, as witness the following speech by Mr. J. Rankin, M.P., delivered at a recent meeting of Church congress at Wolverhampton:
"The emigration of children in industrial schools and orphanages is by far the best possible method of disposing of them. The method of placing out children in our colonies in good homes is the best for the children themselves, and the cheapest method of disposing of them. It would be just and fair, as well as prudent that some portion of the grant might be used for purposes of emigration, and the Central Emigration Society has on several occasions pressed upon the notice of the Home Secretary this definite proposition, namely, that the Government grant, which would be paid in the course of the time for which any child had been sent to an industrial school, might be capitalized and used for the purpose of emigrating such child. There is a fair prospect of some legislation of this kind being brought forward next session. There are about 28,000 children in industrial houses, and a large proportion of these might, with great advantage, be emigrated. The cost of prepared outfitting and conveying a child from this country to a home in Canada is about £15. The Government grant for each committed child in homes established after 1872 is 3s, 6d, per week or £9 2s. per annum; thus, two years' grant more than covers the cost of emigration. The average time of detention in an industrial school is between four and five years, so that emigration is generally the cheapest way of disposing of the child, as well as the best for the child. The cost of emigration and outfitting a child from a home or orphanage is less than the cost of maintaining a child for four or five years. Many orphanages are not in the way of carrying on the work of emigration; in that case the best plan would be to pass on any child for emigration to one of the homes which do carry on this work. For workhouse children, of whom there are 50,000, there is no start in life which is so full of hope and promise for them as placing them out in some colonial family. Workhouse life and training does not fit children for colonial life, and therefore it is desirable that workhouse children, before being emigrated should be sent to some proper emigrants' training school or home and then there would be no objection on the part of the colonies. Guardians may pay for them out of the rates so that no money difficulty arises. The present Government have relaxed the absurd restrictions placed on child emigration by their predecessors."
Great Britain, then, proposes to export just 78,000 pauper children into Canada. We are to have emptied into our midst 78,000 of these poor creatures, who are too young to work, and too ignorant if they are not too young; who have been gathered together from the streets, the lanes, the gutters, the slums, the thieves' resorts, and all the other haunts of vice. They are to be precipitated upon Canada, into our cities, our towns and country places to live in idleness and corrupt Canadian children. The chances are the great majority will be advised to wend their way towards Manitoba where they would almost outnumber our present population. This is the scheme, mark you, which the Canadian Government, through their London organ, have seen fit to approve.
We have protested against it, and many of our eastern contemporaries have done the same. It is the duty of every paper in Canada which has a voice to raise it now. We cannot, we must not submit to this raining down of thousands upon thousands of these embodiments of poverty, ignorance and often of crime, upon our country and among our people. Why England is doing Canada the distinguished honor to land the entire contents of her workhouses upon her alone we do not know, unless it be that she is regarded as the most soft-headed and long suffering of all of her colonies. Why does she not propose a similar pollution of Australia, for instance? She dare not. That colony is crying loudly against the action of France in exporting convicts to the New Hebrides, and would not submit to being made the receptacle of the scum of England's population. Canada must take the same stand. Already our infants homes, our orphanages, our industrial establishments, charitable institutions, jails, penitentiaries, and asylums are full enough. If we allowed this wave of 78,000 paupers to flow over us, the results would be more disastrous than can be easily pictured. The exodus of our young men, serious as it has become already, would rapidly outstrip anything of the kind that we have ever experienced. The step which is meditated would no doubt bring relief to England, but it would be a positive crime against the society, the development and the very existence of Canada. It must not be."
After reading this, is it any wonder so many chose to remain silent?
"The Manitoba Daily Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Wednesday, November 9, 1897
PAUPER IMMIGRATION
Some days ago, we had occasion to protest against the cool proposition made by the Canadian Gazette, the London organ of the Dominion Government, in favor of dumping the paupers of Great Britain upon Canada. The approval with which our remarks have been met upon all sides makes it very evident that any attempt to carry out such a ruinous scheme will meet with most determined opposition from every man who has a grain of common sense left in his composition. Pauper immigration at any time is a bad thing for the country towards which the pauper's footsteps are directed. Notwithstanding that, a little of it could not break the back of Canada, and if it were confined within reasonable bounds, if no more of such immigrants were sent out than the country could easily assimilate, no one would be heard to complain. But a moderate exportation of these "settlers" is not what our British manufacturers contemplate, as witness the following speech by Mr. J. Rankin, M.P., delivered at a recent meeting of Church congress at Wolverhampton:
"The emigration of children in industrial schools and orphanages is by far the best possible method of disposing of them. The method of placing out children in our colonies in good homes is the best for the children themselves, and the cheapest method of disposing of them. It would be just and fair, as well as prudent that some portion of the grant might be used for purposes of emigration, and the Central Emigration Society has on several occasions pressed upon the notice of the Home Secretary this definite proposition, namely, that the Government grant, which would be paid in the course of the time for which any child had been sent to an industrial school, might be capitalized and used for the purpose of emigrating such child. There is a fair prospect of some legislation of this kind being brought forward next session. There are about 28,000 children in industrial houses, and a large proportion of these might, with great advantage, be emigrated. The cost of prepared outfitting and conveying a child from this country to a home in Canada is about £15. The Government grant for each committed child in homes established after 1872 is 3s, 6d, per week or £9 2s. per annum; thus, two years' grant more than covers the cost of emigration. The average time of detention in an industrial school is between four and five years, so that emigration is generally the cheapest way of disposing of the child, as well as the best for the child. The cost of emigration and outfitting a child from a home or orphanage is less than the cost of maintaining a child for four or five years. Many orphanages are not in the way of carrying on the work of emigration; in that case the best plan would be to pass on any child for emigration to one of the homes which do carry on this work. For workhouse children, of whom there are 50,000, there is no start in life which is so full of hope and promise for them as placing them out in some colonial family. Workhouse life and training does not fit children for colonial life, and therefore it is desirable that workhouse children, before being emigrated should be sent to some proper emigrants' training school or home and then there would be no objection on the part of the colonies. Guardians may pay for them out of the rates so that no money difficulty arises. The present Government have relaxed the absurd restrictions placed on child emigration by their predecessors."
Great Britain, then, proposes to export just 78,000 pauper children into Canada. We are to have emptied into our midst 78,000 of these poor creatures, who are too young to work, and too ignorant if they are not too young; who have been gathered together from the streets, the lanes, the gutters, the slums, the thieves' resorts, and all the other haunts of vice. They are to be precipitated upon Canada, into our cities, our towns and country places to live in idleness and corrupt Canadian children. The chances are the great majority will be advised to wend their way towards Manitoba where they would almost outnumber our present population. This is the scheme, mark you, which the Canadian Government, through their London organ, have seen fit to approve.
We have protested against it, and many of our eastern contemporaries have done the same. It is the duty of every paper in Canada which has a voice to raise it now. We cannot, we must not submit to this raining down of thousands upon thousands of these embodiments of poverty, ignorance and often of crime, upon our country and among our people. Why England is doing Canada the distinguished honor to land the entire contents of her workhouses upon her alone we do not know, unless it be that she is regarded as the most soft-headed and long suffering of all of her colonies. Why does she not propose a similar pollution of Australia, for instance? She dare not. That colony is crying loudly against the action of France in exporting convicts to the New Hebrides, and would not submit to being made the receptacle of the scum of England's population. Canada must take the same stand. Already our infants homes, our orphanages, our industrial establishments, charitable institutions, jails, penitentiaries, and asylums are full enough. If we allowed this wave of 78,000 paupers to flow over us, the results would be more disastrous than can be easily pictured. The exodus of our young men, serious as it has become already, would rapidly outstrip anything of the kind that we have ever experienced. The step which is meditated would no doubt bring relief to England, but it would be a positive crime against the society, the development and the very existence of Canada. It must not be."
