EMIGRATION FROM BRITAIN.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1469, 18 June 1912, Page 5

EMIGRATION FROM BRITAIN.

DIRECTION OF THE STREAM. By Telesrapn—l'ress Association—Copyricht London, June 16. During 1911, 201,809 emigrants left Britain. Of this number 210,000 Went to British possessions.. The number of emigrants for Australia and New Zealand increased by 35,000. POPULATING THE EMPIRE. Speaking at the Imperial Conference last year Mr. John Burns, President of the Local Government Board, stated that in 1906 tho total number of emigrants from the Mother Country was 194,671, of whom the different parts of tho Empire took 105,178. or 5-1 per cent. In 1910 the numbers were 233.944 and 159,000 respectively, showing C 8 per cent, to the Empire. Eor the four months of the present year there was an increase over tli9 corresponding period of 1910 of 23,000. or 29 per cent., and the Empire had taken the whole of that increase. Australia and New. Zealand had received ten thousand more in the first four months of 1911 than in the similar period of 1910, or 133 per cent, increase. If the rate of increase for the first four months were continued for the whole of 1911 the total emigrants from Great Britain to all countries would amount to 300,000, of whom it was estimated 230,000, or nearly 80 per cent., would go to- different parts of tho Empire—a generous contribution in quantity and quality from the Mother Country. In 1900 the percentage absorbed by the Empire on the total emigration from the United Kingdom was only 33 per cent. The increase from 33 per cent, to 80 per cent, was a justification of tho excellent and incrca.-ing work in the right direction carried on by the now admirably organised Emigrants' luformalinn Office at .Home. Moreover, it was generally admitted that, the quality of the emigrants haft also improved. The total emigration of 300,000 for 1911 represented 60 per cent, of tho natural increase of tho population of tho United Kingdom, as compared with 48 per cent, in 1910 and 50 per cent, in 1907. But for the saving in life represented by a lower death-rate nnrl a much lower infant mortality this emigration would bo a very heavy drain on the United Kingdom. In ten years Scotland and Ireland combined had increased their population my 210,000, or les* than the total cmisration from Great Britain for one vcar (IPIfl). With n diminishing birth-rate the Mother Country could not safely go be.vnnd 300.000 a year, and if SO per cent, of those went, to different parts of the Empire the Conference would probaWv agree that this was as much as they could reasonably require. The Dominions were entitled to have the surplus, but they must not diminish the seed nlot. They could absorb the overflow, but they m;i-t not empty the Tank.

Since 1997 the work of tbo Emiprratinn Office had move than doubled, and the. machinery was heiivs kept up to modem requirements. Over-ore:ani;:ition or atIcnipts to do morn than was. now heinjc clone would probably ''heck many of the voluntary non-political and benevolent ns='.i"itio('- coi)i>?rtcf] with (he work, who filled a iilio" that no Stnto organisation could nossibly ocenny. Information was disseminated (hmncdi 10(10 public libraries and municipal bui'din*?, in addition to manv post offices, pix hundred and fiftv b-, ? ivl- i.f -"■■irdi.-ns "nt nil Hirir o>"i----i-raled children to the Dominion?. la 21 veiivs !>3OO Poor Law children had beeomicrnlcil at a. cast to (he rales of .£109.(10" The ouality of tlicss children w.~,= indicated by th» fact that. out. nf 15.700 children from th" Poor T.aw schools r.f Loudon only 12 had been returned InIheir employers in con?t>onc:ic<> of natural ,!..|>o'- or incompatibility of temper or disposition.