The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1912. A VIGOROUS POLICY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 33, 22 January 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1912. A VIGOROUS POLICY.

The vigorous :dmmigration policy-' now being adopted by Queensland might, with advantage,, be followed 'by’tins Dominion and the other States of the Commonwealth if we are to fill up the waste places with white instead of brown or yellow men. Mr. Denham, Queensland’s Premier, interviewed in Sydney on a visit there a few days ago, expresses great faith in the injure of the State of which he is the head,' and he file fact that,' last year, 13,681 immigrants (not, in - eluding 378 Russians from- Manchuria) arrived at Brisbane, with the satisfaction sucli' figures wore bound to engender in the mind of an earnest patriot. The sum of £74,800 ,was transferred to Queensland by the Agent-General on behalf of these immigrants, and Mr Denham speaks of the scheme which his Government lias adopted towards the newcomer who wants land, as certain to attract the best men. Not only is the Government allowing tho •man without capital to take up land on easy terms, but from the beginning of the present year the State will share with the earnest pioneer the cost of his labour in clearing land for cultivation. This means, Mr Denham explained, that if a man put in improvements to virgin land to the amount of £lO, the State will advance him £5 on the security of that improvement, and, so on until the loan reaches a maximum of £2OO. This money will be spent, presumably, in the necessaries of life, and the idea which has animated the Government in adopting a scheme of this description, is that, with two years’ hard work, sufficient land can bo brought into a state of ultivation that will enable the farmer vho knows his business to bo well on the highway towards fortune. The Queensland Savings Bank show deposits amounting to £56 per head of population, and the Premier is very hopeful that the satisfactory conditions of tho past few years, which ho declines to attribute to anything but normal growth, will continue. There's a good deal of enterprise behind the Queensland immigration policy, which, though it cost £l3-1,738 last vear, is regarded by Mr Denham as north the price, and he declares that from August Ist to November 30th last, during which time assisted immigration had to lie stopped, the AgentGeneral in London refused no fewer than 6100 applications for help from men anxious to settle in Queensland. A few immigrants, he says, find their way into New South Wales, but if an assisted immigrant wants to go they are perfectly willing to let him, for hig as it is, Queensland, according to its Premier, has no room for dissatisicd population.

THE COST OF LIVING.

Augmented labour charges act and re-act on the cost oi' living, says “Engineering,” a London publication, and unless they arc accompanied, as is not always the case, with higher efficiency of labour, eithwt in the form of superior workmanship or augmented output, the economic condition of the community is not improved. Capitalists, on the other hand, are continually seeking to improve the value of the wage paid by introducing superior methods of production, mechanical and otherwise, in order to

increase output for a given-labour expenditure. If the true interests of

the State and the well-being of the working classes are to bo promoted, tiio worker, for evert addition to emolument, must, seek to augment the volume of production either directly or through the medium of the superior mechanical appliances placed in his hands by capitalists. It follows that capital must bo encouraged towards perfection of appliances if the condition of the worker is to be improved by the payment of a higher rate of wage with the same or a greater purchasing power per unit of the wage. On the other hand, the cost of living lias been increased owing to the greater facilities offered for recreation and amusement. These are good in their way, but the question must be faced as to whether full value is get by the workers for the money spent in this way. It would, therein! e, lie an advantage to have clear evidence as to the effect onSthe cost of living of the increased number of facilities chVrded, because industry, while it must bear the burden of high 'r charge •• in the household duo to the ice; eased cost of necessaries —wuch includes rational recreation—ought not tc be charged with the artificial and profitless pursuits appertaining to recreation with clothing and similar expenditure. There is ter. tim question of the influence on the cost of living of inadequate education in household management in all its phases. If it can be brought, homo to the education authorities that there is remissness in their training of the housewives of the future, and that this entails consequent excess without physical advantage to the household, an improvement might accrue.