THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1907. BRITISH EMIGRATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8451, 30 May 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1907. BRITISH EMIGRATION.

The movement secure co-operative action between the, various emigration agencies of the' United Kingdom and the colonial Government! has received some encouragement from both' Mr Deakin and SirJJoseph Ward. It must be confegfied/'however,.'that the matter remains in a very nebulous condition, and that, we are still very farremoved nfrom the establishment of a concrete method and satisfactory system. In the case of the Commonwealth, this is ascribed by Mr Deakin to the necessity, for looking to the various State authorities •for land; in the case of New Zealand it is largely due to the stubborn determination of the Administration to force upon our settlers a form of tenure which is hopelessly obnoxious to all true agriculturists. As long as this attitude is persisted in by our New Zealand Government we must expect to see Canada, South Africa, and the Commonwealth, in spite of their climatic disadvantages, much more popular than this colony among intending British emigrants. At the same time, the population needs of New Zealand are so great, and its capacity for absorbing labour so persistent, that we may hope to benefit by the increasing pressure which is compelling our British kindred to look for better opportunity overseas. At the Imperial Conference both Sir Joseph Ward and Mr Deakin frankly informed Lord Elgin that under no circumstances would they consent to waive the colonial right to ; discriminate against immigrants whose influx might endanger the national character of our colonial settlement. That this contention is as much in the interests of the people of the United Kingdom as of the people of these colonies can be easily, seen by reference to the extraordinary situation which has arisen at Home. Under any circumstances, whenjpopulation increases at a more

rapid rate than employment, there must always be a pressure making for emigration, but a very considerable part of the present British emigration movement is unmistakably due to the blind indifference of. British statesmen to alien immigration. From 1903 to 1905, inclusive, over 300,000 European immigrants took up their residence in the United Kingdom, as against some 800,000 persons of British birth who emigrated from their native land. The kindred Teutonic nations of Europe contribute but little to this continental colonisation of our Mother Country, the alien influx being almost wholly composed of what we may fairly term the inferior nationalities against whom the United States is now endeavouring to bar her long open doors. England is thus being steadily denationalised—multitudes of her own sons and daughters being driven abroad, not by the normal increase of the population, but by the thrusting of alien hordes against whose capacity to. thrive the ordinary comforts of civilisation no English class can possibly compete. The same fate would befall our colonial populations if we abjured our national instincts and made no racial distinctions at. our ocean ports.