THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1907. IMMIGRATION AND NATIONAL LIFE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8388, 27 March 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1907. IMMIGRATION AND NATIONAL LIFE.

Nation-building is, without doubt, a problem in biology. No finely-de-signed system of jurisprudence, no exquisitely-balanced political machinery will raise and uphold a strong nation, if the material upon which it works is a people of a poor stock. The magnificent achievements of the Germanic races throughout the world was rendered possible by the hardy, healthy, austere life of the Germans of the time of Caesar and their forefathers to the most remote antiquity. Athens, Sparta, and Rome showed the outcome of lorg years of preparation, 1 and their glory is that of splendid breeds of men. Race is everything. The necessity of keeping a vigilant watch upon the inflow of population into countries which are heing rapidly filled by immigration is a matter that is of vital national interest. There is no more striking lesson to be found in this connection than that which the United States of America offers. The history of the great movement of European races into the United States has engaged the attention of more than one Government. It displays the tendencies which are at work wherever rich territories ara being opened up for development. The Irish race supplied 46 per cent, of the total immigration into the States between 1840 and .1850. Since that time,, however, the proportion has steadily diminishecV On the other hand, while the stream of immigrants from Ireland' dwindled down, that from Germany grew in volume, so that in the period between 1880 and 1885 nearly a million Germans, or about "0 per cent, of the immigrants, settled in the United States. Then came a strong movement from Scandinavia, and between 1885 and 1890 that nation supplied 11 per cent, of the i whole increase of population. As | far as these figures are concerned, i the white population of the United

States had been recruited from stocks similar to those which founded the Republic. But from 1885, and more particularly from 1890, though the volume of immigration has maintained its increase, the factors comprising it have undergone a striking and most important change. During the period under review the number of immigrants from Southern and > Eastern Europe rose rapidly. 1 The 1 movement from Scandinavia diminished, and that from ths new sources of supply—notwithstanding even the stringent immigration laws I J of the United States-—grew rapidly. Thoug not wishing to belittle the qualities of thrift and intelligence and other valuable traits which are to be found among the Italians from Southern Italy we may point i i out that they have not the stamina, j the energy, and the resolution of the Northern races. As is well known they swell the ranks of unskilled labourers, and as they are accustomed to it they tend to perpetuate a low standard of living. The Hebrew immigrants are almost invariably adverse to taking up agricultural pursuits, they throng into the big cities and towns, and masses of them dwell together in povertystricken and congested districts. They crowd into the cigarette-mak-ing, tailoring and cabinet-making trades, and are very often the victims of "sweaters." AH measures which tend to attract the British Scandinavian, German, or any other immiI grant possessing similar characterj istics, are beneficial to the country ! concerned. There is a danger in every movement which is likely to weaken the character of a race or impoverish its manner of living, and this danger should be dealt with efficiently and firmly.

AUSTRALIA'S PROSPERITY,

The "good old days" are coming back to Australia. In other words, the sheep-farmers of the Commonwealth have every prospect of receiving ,' more millions sterling for the wool of the 82,000,000 sheep they own to-day than they did for that of the 110,000,000 sheep they possessed in 1891, when Australia's prosperity in the direction mentioned reached high-water mark. What is the reason? In 1895 the population of all wool-growing countries was 506,500,000. To-day it is 569,000,000, so . that while the number of people who want wool has increased the number of sheep has decreased. The decrease in the number of sheep is directly due to the great drought which ruined sq many sheep-farmers. The great wpol»producing area of the , .Commonwealth is New. South Wales, and nothing illustrates better the wonderful recuperative powers of Australia than the following figures for New. Sout,h Wales only before and after the drought:—lß9l, sheep 61,831,416, : clippings in lbs 331,887,030, value £11,000,000; 1902, sheep 26,649,422, clippings in lbs 187,238;485, value £7,550,000; 1904, sheep 34,526,894, clippings in lbs 219,396,078, value £9,950,000..