“The payments to ship-owners and ship-surgeons were regulated by the number of emigrants conveyed; but as the occurrence of births and deaths produced considerable variation during the voyage, it became important to determine at what period the number should be ascertained. I advised that this should be done, not, as was customary, at the beginning of the voyage, but at its close, so as to supply a strong motive to the maintenance of the general health aboard ship. This plan being adopted answered so well, that the number that arrived in the colony often exceeded that recorded at departure; the births on board having outnumbered the deaths. Not thinking it well, however, to trust entirely to this arrangement, I took, under authority of the Commissioners, every care to have both ship and provisions effectually surveyed. On both points a controversy frequently occurred which it may be well to mention. I always took care that the requirements authorised by the Commissioners should be emphatically urged on the attention of the contractors, and constantly received assurance that they were fully understood, and should be fully acted upon; but when defects and blemishes were brought to light by the accuracy of the survey, and the stipulated consequences enforced, an outcry arose, as if the connection between promise and performance were an unheard-of and most unwarrantable innovation. After a time, however, as our practice became recognised, evasive attempts grew rare, the first expense being found to be the least. “Another difficulty arose from unpunctuality in time of sailing, the ships chartered to convey emigrants being too often unprepared when the appointed day arrived. The first means adopted to obtain punctuality was to stipulate for fines in case of delay; but the artificial nature of this arrangement rendered its maintenance difficult. Excuses were tendered, often plausible, sometimes substantial, so that their rejection was hard, while at the same time, whether the penalty were enforced or remitted, the passengers by the particular ship suffered all the inconvenience of delay. To remedy these evils, the rule now established was, that whenever the day for sailing arrived, whether the vessel were ready or not, the expense of boarding and maintaining the emigrants was to be borne by the ship-owners. This gave such a motive to punctuality that delay became infrequent, while, at the worst, detained passengers were relieved from all loss save that of time. I may add that the combined effect of our precautions was that no emigrant ship was lost, nor even sustained any serious accident.