GERMAN IMMIGRANTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 3 April 1909, Page 2

GERMAN IMMIGRANTS.

Tm<; arrival in the Commonwealth of a party of 30 German immigrants who have come out with the idea of forming a German settlement at Gayundah, in Queensland, is, says the Sydney Telegraph, a significant indication that the shrewd Teutons are becoming alive to the splendid prospects open to them in Australia. And, judging by the statement of the leader of the party, they are likely to be followed by further contingents from the same country of origin. While Germans, like sturdy aud healthy white immigrants from other European countries, are to be cordially, welcomed as citizens of the Commonwealth, the Telegraph thinks that their tendency to form distinctively German settlements in the country of their adoption is by no means an advantage from the point of view of Australia as a whole. Racial watertight compartments are not desirable in any country, but the

experience both o( the United States and of the South America Republics is that German immigrants are so strongly impressed by the sense ot nationality that they exhibit a marked tendency to cling together in solid aggregations instead of merging readily with the general population. Happily, it has been found both in the United States and in Brazil — where there is a settlement of 300,000 German-speaking people —that only the actual immigrants themselves practise this habit of segregation from the general mass of the population. Those children who are born in the new laud from German fathers and nativeborn mothers, have no special sympathies with their father’s country. It is the nationality of the mother which dictates the national outlook of the children. Hence, where German immigrants marry Australian women, as they do in the great majority of cases, it may be anticipated that the next generation will be entirely Australian in its sympathies. While the German immigrants are to be frankly welcomed as white men who will help to develop and to defend Australia, the Telegraph adds that there need be no delicacy in declaring that those who are familiar with British institutions from the outset, and who are ready to merge at once into the broad stream of Australian life, ought—other things being equal—to obtain the preference. Britishers first, if the right sort can be obtained.