Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/121

Rh It was anticipated that this pier would be in proper order for use by the middle of July; but, to the surprise of the Commissioners, they were, immediately after the execution of the lease, served with an injunction, obtained by some of the residents in the neighborhood. This injunction was granted and sustained against the appeal of the Commissioners on the ground that the landing of emigrants at the foot of Hubert Street, in the vicinity of St. John's Park, would bring into a quiet part of the city a noisy population, without cleanliness or sobriety; would endanger the health and good morals of the ward, and seriously affect the value of real-estate.

The Commissioners now endeavored to get some other landing-place in the lower part of the city, where the nuisance, if such it could be called, already existed, and where the emigrants for a number of years had been landed. But, though the Common Council, whom they considered bound, in a measure, to furnish a pier, seemed favorably disposed, yet none could be procured and rendered suitable for the purpose. Consequently the Commissioners could not reach the emigrant before he fell into the hands of the plunderers who stood ready to deceive him; frauds which had formerly excited so much indignation and sympathy were practised with as much boldness and impunity as ever, and all the exertions of the Commissioners, though beneficial in many cases, were quite insufficient to put an end to these abuses.

In spite of repeated petitions to the Legislature to provide efficient remedies by giving to the Commissioners exclusive possession and occupation of a pier for the landing of newly arrived emigrants, it took just eight years before that body, by the Act of April 13, 1855, complied with that wish. This act was as important as the one creating the Board of the Commissioners, for it first gave the power to afford really efficient protection to the emigrant. It required the transporting and conveying companies to deliver to the Mayors of New York, Troy, Albany, and Buffalo, in each and every year, a written or printed statement of the price or rates of fare and the price for the carriage of the baggage of the emigrant; it specified the penalty for violating the provisions of this act, and authorized the Commissioners of