The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 8, 1922. THE “WHITE AUSTRALIA” POLICY.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 8, 1922. THE “WHITE AUSTRALIA” POLICY.

There is mostly a wide gap to be bridged between an ideal and its practical evolution, and yet if the work of building this bridge is undertaken on- the right lines, on plans carefully designed, success is possible. Take, for instance, the ideal of a White Australia, which certainly presents difficulties that most onlookers would deem insuperable, yet the more the possibility of converting the abstract proposition into a concrete reality is studied, the less formidable the barriers to accomplishment appear. Once put out of sight the idea that haphazard immigration will be of service, and then the ground is eleard for action. The starting point of this Australian problem is the basic fact that the land is Australia’s chief asset. The Commonwealth has an area of 2,974,581 miles, and a population of about five millions, that is, roughly, 150 inhabitants per square mile. If the large populations of the cities and towns are deducted some conception may be gained of the vast areas that are unpeopled and the great need there is for immigrants of the right class. In this connection it is. interesting to note that the Home authorities are awakening to a more sensible view as to solving the problem of Empire settlement. In replying recently to a deputation of members of the House of Commons, the Colonial Secretary (Colonel Amery) advocated the adoption of a national policy of systematically training schoolboys, girls, men and women “to fit them to emigrate.” That he was conversant with his subject is manifest from his declaration that “a system of giving prospective emigrants a thorough agricultural training in Britain was valueless, because the instruction had to be mostly unlearned on arrival in the Dominions, where the actual practical training must be obtained.” At the same time there should be some preliminary training calculated to turn emigrants into handy men and women, covering the Whole field from the training of hoys and girls in Britain up to their establishment as farmers on their own account. It is on these lines that the Home Emigration Bill is framed. Apparently the exservice men, who are to be financed, are to participate in learning to be handy men before they emigrate. This is the first time in the history of the Empire that emigration ethics have been properly understood by the Home authorities, and it is a good sign of that community of interest and purpose on which the unity of the Empire is to become a reality: Side by side with this Imperial effort to find an outlet for the surplus population, is to be found a movement by some of the Australian States to obtain more settlers. The scheme promulgated for settling ten' thousand British emigrants in Victoria, at a cost of twelve millions sterling, is the first direct lead yet given for solving the joint problems of immigration. British unemployment, and bringing about a White Australia. ' The chief features of this project consist, firstly, in obtaining the right el ass of settlers: secondly, in giving them six months’ training in Victoria, and, lastly, of advancing each settler a working capital of £l2OO, to be refunded, as they prospered, by easy instalments. Most of the money would be borrowed in England. Western Australia. which has an area of nearly a million square miles, with a population below 350,000, offers exceptional facilities to those who will work, and the Premier of that State, who is now visiting the Homeland, is contending that the peopling of this vast area is an Imperial matter, which should be the subject of a ten years’ definite land settlers’ policy. Those who have an accurate acquaintance with the conditions prevailing in the Northern Tferritory are quite convinced that itJs-evst possible.

to people that much-maligned area with white settlers if the requisite steps/ are taken to safeguard health. Under these circumstances it will be seen that- a White Australia becomes no longer a sentimental vision, but a good business proposition in Empire politics—not a nebulous and abstract idea, but a means of gaining strength and substance. Now that there are signs of this emigration problem being rightly understood, there is an excellent starting point for the accomplishment of a dual benefit on both sides of the ocean. The time is ripe for effective action.