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From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: [IRELAND-OLD-NEWS] !! Ballina Chronicle; July 1849; "Emigration"
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 20:33:15 -0500


BALLINA CHRONICLE
Ballina, Mayo, Ireland
Wednesday, July 4, 1849

EMIGRATION
A letter, dated from Melbourne, 29th December, 1848, addressed to her
mother by one of the girls who were sent from this union workhouse to Australia
in August previous, is before us. The writer, in fulfillment of her last promise
to her mother, sends a letter by the first ship that sailed after her arrival.
"My dear mother," she writes, "I only want you, my brothers and sister, to
complete my happiness. We had a lovely voyage, a real good captain and doctor,
and only 3 months at sea"- the shortest passage, as the girl remarks, ever made
to that colony. She and her companions, were very kindly treated by the
Governor, and were not hurried off into places, though there was a great demand
for them. The poor girl had a wish she frequently expressed to her mother
gratified, that of being with a good mistress who is willing and able to make
her a good servant.- The character she got was "that she was one who would
rather be below, cleaning and sewing, than on deck." She advises her sister and
brother to mind their schooling, and concludes a very nicely written and
affecting letter by sending her blessing to Mr. and Mrs. Hart (the Master and
Matron), Dr. Devlin, the School Mistress, and others in the Workhouse to whom
she felt attached.
This letter is highly creditable to the training of those girls. The habits
of industry to which the younger inmates of this workhouse are brought up, and
the useful education they receive, are sure to make them good members of
society, and it is to be regretted that a greater number of them have not been
sent to the colonies.


Cathy Joynt Labath
Ireland Newspaper Abstracts
http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/Ireland/index.html


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