CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 304, 18 May 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

WHERE WE FAIL. The census figures for the whole of the Dominion are as yet incomplete, but sufficient particulars have filtered through to show that we are not making very much headway in the matter of population. Indeed, it.looks as if we are barely maintaining our natural increase, never very great at any time. This is a matter of serious moment, for population ia our main need. The greatest possessions of any country are men, women and children, and more so in the case of a young, undeveloped country like New Zealand, that could comfortably carry a population twenty times as large as it is. We have never seriously gone out of our way to attract population, at any rate, not since the early days of settlement. The efforts put forth of late to induce immigrants to settle has been painfully feeble, suggesting that we are not sincere in our desire to obtain immigration. Contrast this state of affairs with what has been and is going on in Canada,, a country that is in the grip of King lee for seven months of the year and where the conditions of living are difficult in the extreme. Mr. W. D. Scott, the superintendent of immigration for the Dominion, just before his return to Canada after having organised his campaign in England for the summer recently, showed what can be done when a country is in earnest about immigration. "This promises to be a 'boom' year," he. said. "It is at the present time that we are most in need of men for agricultural work, and women for domestic employment, and now we have a steady stream of most desirable persons travelling westward for the purpose of taking up their homes in Canada. My prediction is that during the present •year we shall have between 340,000 and 350,009 new citizens, and that for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 1012, we shall have at least 500,000. The immigration between April 1 and December 31, 1910, as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, showed an increase of 62 per cent Immigratit* to Canada is making remarkable progress, as will be seen when I state that in 1909 we received 184,281 persons, and in 1910, 303,191. During 1910 we rejected only 252 British persons, whereas we turned back at the United States-Cana-dian frontier 14,131. It is true that we reject many applications for admission to our shores, but that is for good and sufficient reason. Our desire is to keep the character of our population at as high a level as possible, and, therefore, we uae discrimination as to whom we allow to land. We are not too partial to the peoples of Southern Europe, and in not encouraging them to become citizens of Canada, we are profiting by the lessons which may be learned iii the United States. We are getting a better class of immigrant than the United States. From 1890 to 1893 the United States received '95 per cent, of their new citizens from Northern Europe; to-day they are receiving 77 per cent, from Southern Europe, and only 23 per cent. Northern Europe. Canada now is getting from Northern Europe and the United States 84 per cent, of her immigrants, and only 10 per cent, from other sources." Mr. Howell, the emigration official of the Canadian Northern Railway, who went to London to organise the emigration of women to Canada for domestic service, has been so successful that he has been obliged to put a temporary check on the movement. The applications were so numerous that they exceeded the accommodation at his disposal. It is true N.Z. cannot offer to immigrants land on the same terms as Canada, but there is no reason why the State should not get busier about opening up the great blocks of Crown and native lands that are at present lying unproductive, and bring the people here, even if it means ing their boat expenses and helping them to profitably work the land. Until this is done, we must take a back seat in the matter of immigration and not progress as we should do.

WEDDINGS AND BUSINESS. A Melbourne reporter, who has been investigating the causes of the prosperity which the city is enjoying, has come to the conclusion that the increase of the marriage rate is very closely connected with the progress made recently in many branches of trade, fieneral prosperity always increases the rate of marriage, and the frequency of marriages increases the prosperity. Last year there was a ''marriage boom" in Victoria, and it has not, yet shown signs of waning. A leading jeweller in Melbourne informed the reporter last week that trade had never been better for the last ten or twelve years. His own business last year had been one-third greater than that of the previous year, and during the

first three months of this year his turnover had been 25 per cent, better tuan that of tne tirst quarter of 1910. People buying rings and wedding presents were asking for good quality, and were prepared to pay good prices. A furniture dealer, who declared that a cessation of marriages for three months would ruin him, staled that each week he was furnishing two houses for. young couples. He charged from .Cl5O to £IOSO for a ''house of furniture," and most of his customers were spending from £2OO to £SOO. The reporter saw a couple whom he described as "a happy-looking lady and a gentleman with a rather dazed aspect" walking out of the warehouse, and the proprietor told liim that they had just purchased C7OO worth of furniture. There has been a boom in wedding cakes, one popular firm in Melbourne having sold '2-10 cakes already this year. The people who supply dresses and the hundred and one articles that go to furnish the bride's "glory box" are reaping a fine harvest. The leading dressmaker of a large establishment stating that she was filling an order every week for a trousseau costing £6O or £7O, and sometimes considerably more. Mothers and sisters and bridesmaids were nil spending freely, and business was exceptionally brisk." Many business people, no doubt, are at variance with "Punch" in its advice to those about to marry.