The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9. AUSTRALIA'S BIG QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 180, 9 November 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9. AUSTRALIA'S BIG QUESTION.

New Zealand has not yet seriously en teied into the great competition for the attraction of men that is now an extremely important plank in the platform ] of Governments of all new countries. The question of attraction of strong blood to new countries is emphasised at the moment in many ways. The Union of South. Africa and the sin'king of racial differences has given the Governor-Gen-eral the text for some remarks showing that the settlement of the land will be the chief concern of the Union. It is probable that science will in time eliminate the pests with which South Africa abounds, and that in the course of the next decade a country admirably adapted for settlement and' into which a poor man with a strong heart may enter with confidence, the population of food producers will be enormously augmented. | The fact that South Africa is comparatively close to its best available market will enhance its attractions as an agricultural country. There is the addV tional fact of an inexhaustible supply of cheap labor, and whatever labor organisations may say in opposition this is a most important factor from the settler's point of view. The presence in Australia of the Scottish Agricultural Commissioners is an occasion that brings the question of much-needed immigration prominently before statesmen. Mr. McGowen, Xew South Wales Premier, lately said that his State "wanted immigration of the light sort to develop the interior, and that New South Wales hoped to successfully compete with Canada in attracting British immigrants." There is a decided revival of agriculture in Britain, the operations of the Budget being largely responsible. It is, therefore, disadvantageous to Britain to drive out its best agricultural class, and Sir Carlow Martin put the position of the Home Land clearly when he said that the time had arrived when they should have organisations at Home regulating emigration, so as not to allow the best blood of the country to leave it. The "best blood" will probably flow to the countries which offer it the greatest attraction, and the obvious business of the statesmen of all empty British countries is to compete in the bidding* for the "best blood." Illustrating the emptiness of Australia, there was sold to two partners a week or two ago one thousand square miles of country, the Miranda Downs station, on the Gilbert river, Queensland. This great area, now owned by two men, runs •21,000 head of cattle and 25 Ohorses. It is obvious that the Commonwealth with such vast areas of land must offer special advantages if it wants to fill up. That special attractions are offered is shown by the fact that a New Zealand farmer, who is now nearly seventy years of age, lately sold out his farm in the Auckland district after holding it for forty years and has started life again in Queensland. This is one of many similar instances. It is not good that •ne almost empty dominion sould supply settlers for another similarly unpeopled one, although, naturally enough, such exchanges are the more valuable to the country obtaining the settlers. Britain is glad enough to get rid of her unwanted population, and presumably a proportion may make capable settlers, for often the most inexperienced people tackle the unknown with the bravest hearts. That, indeed, is the beginning of all colonisation. The Scottish Commissioners lately examined North Queensland. Away up in the tropics these Scotsmen found people of their own blood prospering wonderfully, and everywhere they went the request was, "Send a steady stream of immigrants here; that is what we want." That is what New Zealand wants, too, for her temperate climate. One settler voiced the sentiments of all the empty dominions: "We do not want the cast-offs of other countries here, but clear-minded, keen, strong agricultural laborers." At a gathering to which these Scotch Commissioners were invited in Queensland, it was shown that fifty per cent, of the settlers had "started off scratch," with nothing but "pluck and muscle" to aid them. One "new-chum" mentioned that he had not a penny to begin farming with, and he knew absolutely nothing about the business. But in three or four years he had become quite comfortable. In comparison with anv other part of the British dominions, New Zealand offers perhaps the best return for "pluck and muscle." The essential point in the settlement of a country should not be the attraction of people with money capital but with "pluck and muscle." Canada attracts the people because she makes it easier than any country on earth for the man without money to settle on the land and to set a livinsr out of it. The Commonwealth Government of Australia is definitely "out" to attract all the people it can. and the way it is going to attract them is by giving them the cheap land that the squatter must disgorge bit by bit under the new scheme of things. It sepms possible that the Labor Party of Australia has at last come to the eonelusion that Australia is vastly rich, that it is worth keeping, and that four and a-half million folks can't keep it. Npw Zealanl is just as much in need of liicr, if <rrndnal, influxes of population as Australia, and it is a question of comnetition between the Commonwealth and this Dominion. Tf Australia offers the potential settler from the old lands bettor opportunities—that is to say, cheap or free lnnrl —than New Zealand offers, ; t will fill up more rapidly than New Zealand. Tf either or both countries do not fill up rapidly, the safety of the few people scattered throughout Australasia is menaced. If only from the point of

self-protection the Government buy population with land as the consideration, the end would justify the means.