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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 140, 9 December 1911, Page 4

BOYS FOR THE COLONIES. Mr. Sedgwick, the man whose excellent system of exporting boys from Britain called down on him the 'condemnation of a few "dog-in-the-manger" persons in a late report on the "junior Imperial migration," says that within the next ten years -200,00® kids will leave Britain for the Dominion, much to the benefit of the nation and the Empire and without disturbing the wage conditions of the countries to which they are sent. It is Mr. Sedgwick and his helpers who first essayed the task of organising a scheme for tho continual supply of young men for the dominions. The importance of these schemes lies in the fact that boys are taken away from surroundings which would not permit of their full physical and metal development at a time when their faculties are capable, under brighter conditions, of being moulded for the best. It is unfortunate to have to admit that there are thousands of young people at Home whose only handicap is poverty and who by reason of their environment can never win a place of any consquence in crowded Britain . In the colonies instances are innumerable of young men who have cut adrift from crowded countries making the very best use of their youth and health and strength in the dominions. Britain therefore loses a proportion of human material she can well spare, and the dominions gain a very needful supply. Mr. Sedgwick, in his report, says that town boys make the best farm hands. The point is, of course, that they have nothing to unlearn, they enter into a new avocation with zest and interest, and are much moro likely to become good settlers for this reason. Mr. Sedgwick also states that the arrangements made by the New Zealand Labor Department in respect to the boys who have been sent here are "incomparably the best ever devised by a State for their immigrants," and as the boys who have beeomo absorbed into the life of this country have all been well and happily placed, and the absurd contention that they would "dislocate the labor market" has been disproved, it is sincerely hoped that we may get our full share of the 200.000 mentioned. In very many instances these young immigrants break no ties in leaving Home, and therefore become at once New Zealanders, animated by the same ideals as the native-born. Every British boy who settles in New Zealand is an addition to the commercial and defensive strength of the country, and it is therefore hoped that the supply will never be diminished by the protests of the loud-mouthed objectors who are so imitatingly common.