cost about one pound a-week for ninety
weeks; on the last week of January, eighty
letters were received in a day. The whole
expenses—including four public meetings,
and twenty-four group meetings—have been
under three hundred pounds.

This success—founded on such small
pecuniary means—is due neither to chance nor to
patronage. It has been attained, in spite of
great opposition, by working the following
details of a plan, the result of long experience.

Every Monday evening, at eight o'clock, a
"Group Meeting" is held, which persons who
are interested personally in the question of
emigration may attend. This meeting is a
real conversazione; there are almost always
some persons present who have relations in
Australia, with whom they are in correspondence;
the strangers get into conversation
with the older members; letters from
Australia are handed round; the wives establish
confidence; and, in an easy manner, a great
deal of useful information is exchanged.
The formal part of the business consists in
the reading of any new regulations; in reports
of progress concerning a new ship; in the
introduction of new members to the groups,
and in affording in a conversational tone
any practical information needed. Sometimes
Australians attend. A man who went out
as a labourer, and has returned rich enough
to take back with him some relations, gives
the result of his experience; or some
competent person gives a candid account of the
pleasures and pains of an emigrant's life.
A stranger, who after this meeting may
desire to join, enters his name, and full
description of family, trade, and so forth,
in a small office below: stating what sum
he can afford to pay weekly; he produces
a certificate of character, and pays a shilling
registration fee. He then presents himself
to the next meeting as a candidate to
join a group. A group consists of not less
than three families, or more than eight.
Before a stranger can be admitted into a
group, he must satisfy the members of it that
he is, in morals and temper, a desirable
associate. The heads of groups make these
inquiries for themselves in workshops, clubs,
and other sources of impartial information.
Each group undertakes to act for the
protection of such number of single girls and
young children as may be assigned to it, and
enters into a solemn pledge to this purport;
and also undertakes jointly to pay a fine of
ten shillings for each defaulter. On an
appointed day the husbands in each group
meet and produce their marriage certificates;
after which they proceed to settle, by lot or
otherwise, the turn in which each man shall
act as captain of the mess on board ship: each
taking the duty on himself for a fixed number
of weeks.

The men of the groups also elect, each, one to
form three committees on board ship. One of
these is the " Mess Committee," which undertakes
to see that the provisions are of the
weight and quality provided by the Society,
and to represent in a respectful manner any
cause of complaint to the Captain or Surgeon.
This committee also arbitrates in case of a
dispute among the emigrants themselves.
The other two committees in this trio, are,
one for the department of Instruction, and
the other of Public Amusement.

The Monday night Group Meetings enable
all these persons to become acquainted with
each other; they go on board ship a body of
partners, an active and compact association.

Many important and economical arrangements
have been made at these Group Meetings.
On one occasion, three families living
in three separate lodgings agreed to take
a small house between them for the six
months that would elapse until they emigrated.
By this arrangement they of course made a
considerable saving; afterwards, when in
their new house, they arranged that one
mother should stay at home and look after
all the children, while the other two went
out to wash and char.

A tailor, a shoemaker, and a carpenter
benefited at once themselves and a number of
groups, by making chests, boots, and clothes,
on shore and on board, at very reasonable
rates. So far, the business of the Association
is chiefly done by the emigrants themselves.
When about two hundred individuals have
paid, in weekly instalments, two-thirds of the
passage-money, the Society has to consider to
whom and to what amount it will advance
loans. The Society has never had, during the
two years of its existence, more than two
thousand pounds at its disposal. It has never
been a fashionable Society, although it has
received the countenance and aid of the active
philanthropy of such men as the Earl of
Shaftesbury and Mr. Sidney Herbert, and of
a thorough man of business, Mr. Tidd Pratt.
The loans, which never exceed one-third of
the passage-money, are for two years, and
are charged with a fee of ten shillings,
payable in the last instalment, in lieu of
interest. These loans are only made to
people capable of earning their own living
by the labour of their hands. The emigrants
sent out by the first vessel have already
begun to repay their loans; those settled in
or near Adelaide having commenced repaying
by weekly instalments.

After the distribution of the loans is settled,
the next business is the hiring of a ship to
make the voyage to Australia. The Society
requires a ship of the best description, or, as
it is termed technically, A 1, on Lloyd's
Register. It gives ten per cent. more space
to the passengers than the Government
Emigration ships. It supplies provisions of
a superior quality. It permits the emigrant
to have in store, for use in journeys up the
country, any portion which he may not have
consumed. This, on an average, will amount
to from fifteen to twenty-one days' provisions