SIR GEORGE REID AND THE EMIGRANTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 52, 23 June 1914, Page 4

SIR GEORGE REID AND THE EMIGRANTS.

Sir George Reid went down to Tilbury one day early in May to„bid good-bye to nearly 1000 emigrants, who were setting out on the Makarini for Victoria and New South Wales. This was the High Commissioner's first appearance upon one of the emigrant He was accompanied by Mr Percy Hunter, the Superintendent of Immigration for New South Wales and Victoria, Mr E. Rayment, the Assistant-Superintendent, and a number of leading London journalists. The emigrants were made up largely of lads from sixteen to twenty years of age, proceeding to work on farms in New South Wales and Victoria; there were about 100 domestics and farm laborers, and a few hundred wives and children who were going out to join their relatives in the Commonwealth. It was a characteristic emigration ship's company. In a bright speech, Sir George Reid told the young voyagers how he himself embarked from Britain to Australia as a little boy some sixty years ago. Ho was at work at the age of thirteen, and he had prospered because, whilo he had worked hard, lie had always aimed to prepare himself for something better. Australia would treat them all very handsomely provided they gave their employers a square deal. "But to any boy," said Sir George, "who thinks he is going to Victoria and New South Wales to loaf I would say, 'Get off the ship at once; we don't want you.' "