The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1913. ABOUT MIGRATION
Dr. Chappie, formerly of this city, and now Liberal M.P. for Stirlingshire, directed attention to an important Imperial problem in tho House of Commons last Monday. Ho called tho notice of the Government to tho increasing efforts mad© by Canada to attract the best agriculturists from Britain and to discourage the migr» tion of inefficients from tho Alothei Country to Canada. The Colonial Secretary’s reply was carefully noncommittal. Mr Haroourt said he was aware that “it was sometimes considered” that the emigration of agriculturists had attained excessive proportions, and the matter was being inquired into by the Dominions Commission. Now, this is a question vitally concerning all tho people of tho British Empire. It is a matter that might well be treated on very broad lines, as affecting the Empire’s safety, prosperity, and future, individually and collectively. The United Kingdom is , a small country closely peopled; the oversea Dominions are for the most part wide territories absolutely hungering for population. The obvious thing ibo do is to bring about some adjustment of these inequalities. But the Dominions are particular. They desire to fill their lands with people of British stock, so far as may be, but at the same time they very naturally wish to pick and choose. Canada and Australia insist upon tho right of selection. So in a rather less satisfactory degree does New Zealand. Clearly, this process has only to go far enough and last long enough to have an appreciable effect in lowering the quality of the residue of the race in tho Mother Country. Indeed, the drain by emigration from the United Kingdom has in recent years caused seriously-minded people much thought and some anxiety. The population of the British Isles continues to grow probably quite sufficiently, in all the circumstances, hut it is the constant lessening of the more efficient class which constitutes tho chief problem. Scotland and Ireland have not shown very good records in regard to population for a long time past, but the Kingdom as a whole has a certain surplus annually to spare towards filling tho empty parts of the Empire. Still, the supply is far short of the demand —and even the demand is nothing like what it should bo. Certainly it is far lower than would be tho case if the Dominions, generally speaking, offered more liberal facilities for occupation of tho land. In tho course of a very important discussion of this question at the Imperial Conference in 1911 some weighty utterances fell from the lips of Mr John Bums, the President of tho Local Government Board. It arose on a motion (which was carried) to reaffirm the resolution of tho previous Conference that it is desirable that British emigrants bo encouraged to proceed to British rather than to foreign countries. Mr Burns quoted figures show ing, to general satisfaction, that the tendency was in the direction desired, tho emigrants remaining under the flag having' risen from 64 per cent, of the total in 1906 to nearly 80 per cent, in 1911. But he said that State-aided emigration was not favourably regarded by the Mother Country. “You are entitled to take our surplus,’’ said the British Minister to the Dominions’ delegates, “but you must not diminish the seed-plot. You can take our overflow, but do not empty the tank. Whatever we do in the Mother Country or the Dominions, crowded emigrant ships leaving the Mother Country are no compensation for empty cradles in any country in the British Empire.” Passing from the general to the particular or working hypothesis, Mr Burns said that having regard to tho diminishing birth-rate and the increasing emigration of fertile people, tho Mother Country could not safely spare more than 300,000 a year, and if British countries oversea received 80 to 90 per cent, of that number they could not reasonably and consistently require more. If we examine the facts, evidence is easy to discover supporting tho view put forward by Mr Bums. The latest British migration figures available are for the year 1911. These show that tho total number of departures from the United Kingdom was 1,706,666 and of arrivals 1,465,516 —an excess of emigration over immigration of 241,151. But these include all nationalities. The figures relating to British people are: Departures 454,527, arrivals 192,718, or a net loss of 261,809. The lesson of these statistics —the very serious import of the figures we have quoted—is that the Mother Country is experiencing an influx of aliens together with an efflux of her own people. The policy of the oversea Dominions is to encourage one of these movements and to aggravate its influence by the process of selection. That is why wo say that Dr Chappie’s question in Parliament undoubtedly touched upon a problem of considerable gravity of vital concern to us all. We know full well how much easier it is to ixiint out evils than to suggest remedies. Taking Mr.Bums’a juasdanum^aK
lowance, tho Dominions should not import more than 270,000 persons a year from tho United Kingdom, a number miserably inadequate to the requirements of such immense countries. There is one way in which the situation could bo relieved. Britain has a substantial preponderance of females over males, whereas the oversea Dominions have a lack of womanhood. There is surely room for the excess of women and girls to find useful careers abroad under their own flag without in any wav unsettling conditions at Home. Indeed, tho tone of tho employment market would probably undergo improvement with tho lessening of the surplusage ot female labour. Tho sox question, however, as applied to the whole situation is but a detail, though not an unimportant one. All the circumstances show that the whole question presents considerable difficulties. It is, however, tho business of statesmanship to overcome difficulties.
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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8338, 25 January 1913, Page 4
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975The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1913. ABOUT MIGRATION New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8338, 25 January 1913, Page 4
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