EMIGRATED TO AUSTRALASIA.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1382, 20 July 1878, Page 3

EMIGRATED TO AUSTRALASIA.

[Melbourne “Argus.”] It is very satisfactory to observe that these colonies are considered at the present time to possess advantages as a field for emigration superior to either the United States or the Dominion of Canada. The report of the Board of Trade for last year furnishes indisputable evidence of this gratifying fact, and also supplies so much information of a valuable character respecting the force and present direction of the stream of emigration flowing from the United Kingdom, that b, brief analysis of its contents will no doubt prove interesting. In the first place, it is very apparent that the great decrease in emigration observed in 1875 and 1876 continued throughout last year. The emigration from Great Britain in 1877 showed a decrease of 18,251 souls as coippared with that of the previous year, and of nearly 54,000 as compared with 1875, when the great falling-off com menced. Therefore the opinion that the minimum of emigration has been reached is probably pretty accurate. If the foreign element is excluded, and only the emigration of persons belonging to the United Kingdom reckoned, the diminution during last year is even more apparent, being equal to a falling-off of 13 per cent, upon the already small total of the previous year. In fact, the emigration of ueople of British and Irish origin was less last year than it was during any period since 1853, with the single exception of 1861. The total emigration in 1877 was 119,971 souls, while the immigration during the same period amounted to 81,848, leaving an excess of emigration of 38,123 souls. The following table shows the nationalities and destinations of the emigrants : ITo the British j SAnstra- All Nationality. United North ; lia and Other States. America j New Places. (Zealand. English - 28,074 6,009 19,485 10,143 Scotch ... 3,410 791 3,250 1,193 Irish ... 13,991 917 7,403 520 Foreigners ... 10,800 1,512 924 1,993 Not given ... 1,080 57 | 9 ' 1.735 This return discloses more than one significant fact. The great decrease in Irish einigration which has been so prominent during the last two years still steadily continues, and, apparently, indicates that the decline is attributable to permanent causes. Recent Imperial legislation has undoubtedly done much both to ameliorate the condition of the poorer classes in Ireland, and to induce a more contented and patriotic spirit. The cotters are therefore able to withstand even the allurements held out by other lands, where “ there’s bread and work for all.” The serious commercial depression in the Unitea States has also largely contributed to rob this haven of the working man of many of the claims it once possessed. The Irish, from enjoying an overwhelming preponderance in the nationalities of emigrants from the United Kingdom, have now fallen very much below the English. For instance, their annual average for the last two years is only 24 per cent, of the total emigration of persons ot British and Irish origin, or only 26,000 and 23,000 respectively, while the English emigration during the same periods amounted to 67 per cent, of the whole.