Another meeting for the promotion of systematic immigration yvas held at the same place, 20th September, at yvhich the Mayor also presided. This was got up by " squatters and others " interested in the matter, and addresses yvere delivered by Messrs. Edward Curr, Colin Campbell, W . F. Splatt, J. C. Riddell, and E d m u n d Westby. A Petition to the Governor yvas adopted, and it yvas resolved to form an Association to advance the object in view.
ORPHAN IMMIGRATION.
In the course of 1848, the Home Government conceived a design to transmit to this portion of the Colony of Neyv South Wales, a supply of female labour, consisting of orphan girls selected from the poorhouses of Great Britain and Ireland—chiefly the latter. In M a y thefirstbatch arrived, and thenceforth only at infrequent intervals. T o provide some sort of machinery for looking after the youngsters, and helping to procure them suitable employment, the Sydney Government appointed the Right Reverends the Protestant and R o m a n Catholic Bishops (Drs. Perry and Goold), Very Rev. P. B. Geoghegan (Roman Catholic A^icar-General), Rev. Irving Hetherington (Presbyterian Minister), Rev. A. C. Thomson (Episcopalian Minister), yvith Messrs. Edward Curr, W m . Lonsdale, John Patterson (Immigration Agent), R. W . Pohlman, Andreyv Russell, J. H . Ross, and James Simpson, a Port Phillip Orphan Immigration Committee and Board of Guardians. T h e girls, though rough enough in some respects, were honest, virtuous, and teachable. After entering service many of them proved to be excellent household servants. There yvere at the time certain malcoments in Melbourne, chronic fault-finders, and foremost among.'t them yvere Mr. William Kerr and the Argus neyvspaper. This journal yvas not then the influential and money-making leviathan it is noyv, but a puling urchin, only four years old, yvith a tenure of life precarious enough, and engaged in a hard struggle for existence. It yvas founded by Kerr, and after parting company yvith him, continued the mouthpiece of his party. T h e Pauper Immigration yvas, therefore, used as a good "cry" from both a national and sectarian point of vieyv, and the most alarming predictions yvere indulged regarding the demoralizing and proselytizing influences exercised by the arrival of a few hundred young girls in a new colony, yvhere an equalization of the sexes yvas a requirement yvhich a true philanthropist yvould welcome yvith satisfaction. The supposed discontent yvas fanned at every opportunity. T h e Argus charged the orphan girls with the grossest incapacity, dishonesty, and immorality, and averred that it was from their ranks that Melbourne street harlotry was recruited. From the newspaper the question was transferred to the City Council, where in 1850 Alderman Kerr moved a resolution for an Address to the Queen, protesting against the continuance of the pernicious system. After much vacillation on the part of the Council, the Address, though at first affirmed and then burked, yvas finally carried, and transmitted to its destination. It yvas, hoyvever, completely nullified by counter proceedings. A public meeting was held on the 18th April at St. Francis' school-room, off Lonsdale Street, at yvhich Bishop Goold presided, and several indignation speeches yvere delivered by Dean Coffey, the Revs. R. A. Downing, and T. Slattery, Messrs. J. O'Shanassy, John Lynch, J. W . Dunbar, J. Ballingall, James Main, S. Duggan, P. M'Donough, H . Cain, P. Kennedy, and others. Strongly worded resolutions were also passed, viz. :—(a) " Denouncing in the most unqualified language the charges as 'a base calumny. A wilful contradiction of facts and experience.'" (b) "Pledging protection and encouragement to a highly virtuous and deserving class of immigrants." (c) " Declaring that the City Council bad no right to meddle yvith such a question;" and (d) " T h e appointment of a Committee to prepare a Memorial to the Queen, in contravention ofthe mis-statements in the Council manifesto." But the most irrefutable vindication of the Irish orphan girls emanated from the St. Patrick Society. Mr. E. Finn yvas then Vice-President of that Association (a sketch of yvhich is given elsewhere), and being connected yvith the Herald, he had special facilities for hunting out information in days when no Government Statist figured in Melbourne, and anything like reliable statistics yvere officially difficult of obtainment. H e ransacked the records of the Police Court, and the gaol, procured information from the Immigration Agent, the Chief-Constable, the detectives and ordinary police, and, seized of every possible fact that could be gathered, he convened a special meeting of the Society, at which the attendance of the public yvas invited. O n the evening of the 7th May, 1850, St. Patrick's Hall was croyvded, for
