The Daily News. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1911. "SCUM OF THE EARTH."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 75, 19 September 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1911. "SCUM OF THE EARTH."

There is no doubt that Canada has been doing everything in her power to attract as many people as possible, no matter what their qualifications or disqualifications may be, and that she has been remarkably successful in augmenting her populations ehi«fly because she is within a few days' steam of the great centres of population, and paints* an alluring picture for poor people. ' We know that honest" people, taking their courage in their hands, have invaded what has been called '-The Frozen Hell," and have made a success of life there. It is, of course, inevitable that Canada must attract undesirables, and no system ever devised by any country has ever admitted nor can it hope to admit only the honest, frugal and industrious. When Mr. Mcflowen returns to Sydney and alleges that Canada is the "dumping ground for the scum of the earth" he talks sheer rubbish. No man is able to speak of the character of even a proportion- of the people of any Jand, after a train flight through the coun-

try. In fnct, Mr. McGowen acts just us reprehcnsively in branding Canadians in the making "scum" as that much boomed person, Foster Fraser, acted in Humming lip Australians and Australia after a hurried flight through the island continent. There is indeed no comparison in the systems adopted in Canada and in Australia and New Zealand. The very rapidity of movement in the great Dominion is proof that the best proportion of the people are vigorously enterprising. Canada does not rush through great railways anil settle new country and establish great industrial enterprises by the aid of the "scum." There may be "scum," of course, but Canada is growing rapidly enough to be strong enough to deal with it effectually. Canada does things while Australia talks all around it. Canada admits thousands of good, bad, and indifferent men, women and children, while Australia palters on the question whether six or seven imported workers are going to do somebody out of a job. Canada takes a job lot of imported brains and gives the best of them a chance to help the country. Australia and New Zealand are only now beginning to wake, up to the value of brains, but as yet the owners of the brightest intellects have to take their brainware to a better market than either country affords. Canada is sound in land matters, even if the land is frost-bound for half the year. Canada knows that land is worthless unless worked, and finds it better to give it away than to leave if,, idle. There is no awarding a sprat to capture a mackerel about the land systems of Australia and New Zealand. Canada opens her doors to men and women and children becaflse they are a country's wealth and not because they happen to be born in the British Isles. These lands look askance at the sturdy foreigner, alihough when he does get foothold he frequently shows I he native born many points. Australia, itself, despite its antipathy to foreigners, i» essentially a mixed community. It has successful settlers from every country in Europe, it has several classes of businesses run entirely by foreigners. and these people have achieved success despite the serious handicaps of being unwelcome and disliked. We have even lately heard that there are six hundred German reservist soldiers in Australia, and this does not include the very large number of German settlers who have been phenomenally successful in many lines, but notably in wine-growing, an industry that is thoroughly established and likely to reach as high a plane as the wine-growing industry of France. To be quite frank, Canada is no more the dumping ground for ".-icum" than Australia, for Australia unquestionably has its fair proportion of human handicaps to progress. What one would like to ask Mr. McGowen. is how do the

authorities know what is "scum" and' what is not;? What precautions do Australians take in preventing the land of "scum?" How does it manage to let Russian murderers pass and alleged Peters' the Painter, and Afghans who run amok with can-knives and all the rest of the interesting folk one meets in out of the way places on the Dai'ing or the Murrumbidgec or in the "wastes of the Never Never?" The fact is Canada drafts a big mob in without much question and takes her chance. Australia culls its small mobs and allows quite as large a proportion of "wasters" through as Canada. "Scum" does not wear the name on its hatband, and a waster never tells an emigration officer he is a "bad egg." More damage is done to new countries by flying critics than by any other means. At the local meeting of the Chamber of Commerce the other day,' a member spoke harshly (and necessarily) about the person who rushed through New Zealand in "five minutes" and wrote a book. The person who writes a book after a flying tour is no greater an affliction than the politician who whirls through Canada and returns to Australia speaking of it as a depository for human scum. Both Australia and New Zealand might take a leaf out of the book of the big Dominion in enterprise, industry and faith in the country. The man who cuts adrift from his own country and goes to a new one is not necessarily a patriot, but he shows individuality in striking out for himself. Even if he is "scum" he must have some grit about him, and under happier circumstances than those with which he has been surrounded, he may become as desirable a citizen as the man who rushes through saying what a "bad egg" the Canadian is. One thing is certain as far as Australia and New Zealand are concerned. They are not filling up fast enough, scum or no sdflm, and the importance of any country lies in the number of the people it contains and the work they can do. It is better to have an adequate population with a 10 per cent, proportion of wasters, than an inadequate population with the same proportion, for no human means haro ever been discovered for preventing tho waster from wandering, if he can beg, borrow, steal, or earn the passage money. It costs him less to wander to the "Frozen Hell" than to "God's Own" No. 1 and No. 2, and even then the whole of the .peopl£ of- Mies* lands are not absolutely perfection. On the whole, too, it may be believed that the "scum" is less harmful on the great North-West prairies or in the Never Never than in the purlieus of Whitechapel, the dens of Berlin, or the alleys gf Naples. The world would be all the sweeter if the "scum" got more fresh tir.