THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1913. IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION.
Wihile we, in New Zealand, are deploring the fact that we have an insufficiency of farm labour to till the soil and make it productive, and while we are endeavouring to persuade men of the right class to come to us from Great Britain, tho depletion of the population of the United Kingdom is being regan-ded witli apprehension by British statesmen. In a reoent article dealing with the subject, the London Times said:—"Opinion seems to have undergone a oomplete change on the subject of emigration." A few years ago it was -generally regarded as a most desirable thing and, if not a remedy for mil our woes, at least the unexceptionable cneans of relief. Great efforts were made to push it; societies sprang up to advocate it and carry it on, and those already at work redoubled their activity. Results were announced and advertised amid a chorus of self-congratulation. These efforts, coupled with la systematic' policy of attracting immigrants pursued by the Dominion Governments, were highly successful, and year after year the tide of emigration rolled up, though not fast enough to satisfy enthusiastic advocates. The other day attention was called to it in the House of Commons on the motion for adjournment, ibut in. a very different spirit. Every speaker who referred to it, including the Colonial Secretary, expressed more or less concern at the dimensions of the movement, and no one took the opposite line. The view expressed in the House is reflected outside, and references to emigration are now generally pitched in a lugubrious key. On all sides we hear laments over tihe departed agricultural labourer and the denuded oountryside; it is ja, leading item in the arguments for any land reform programme. But the complaint is not confined to rural district®. We
hear of a dearthof skilled workmei in the great industries and that, too is attributed largely to emigration Fifteen years ago the overage num berof. emigrants was about 50,RQ0 ten years ago it was about 120,000 now it ia over 260,000 per annum. Thi first throe months of the presem year have witnessed a further rise o 8 7 per cent, over the corresponding period for 1912. The greater pwti« it, and in an increasing degree, hai been directed to British Dominions From the Imperial point of viey there is nothing to regret in thu movement. It i s surely desir&bh that these great and spatrsely populat od portions of tihe Empire should b< broiight into use and not left to li< waste, and that their developmen should bo carried on mainly by oui own people, whoee capacity ,for colo nisation is unequalled. The Doamn ions themselves desire it and the in terests of the Empire demand it This ' s i indeed, to fulfil the destinj of an Imperial race. On the side ol the Mother Country the advantage ol being able to send her sons anc daugjhters to these spacious land: without losing tihem is still .more ob vious. It is highly prized by th< people, and particularly by thoK< classes who most need and chiefly take advantage of the larger pros pects offered by tiie young Britisl nations across the sea. This is j sound and solid reason why the idet of Empire always appeals to them, t< the annoyance and disoomfiture of tin Little Englander, who does not un it.' But it is possible U too much emigration, and th< fooling seeus to be gaining grounc that it Become more than ah out let for our siirpluis population. ..Emigration attracts two classes ifi par; bicular —those who thave most enterprise and those who have failed a< Home. At one time the failures ivere probably more numerous thai the other class, but tihe countries oi destination revolted, and adopted th joliey of excluding them «b far at possible. They do not want out loafers and shirkers, and have a pert'eot right to decline tihem. Nor dc ihe shirkers themselves wunt to go (There they have (to wSrk; when they ;'ind that tihoy are expected to exert ;hemi solves they come back, tihaug. lad they gone young enough they night have been saved from becoming Shirkers. The oonsequenceis that :he roeent stream of emigration has consisted mainly of tile better class. To say that Che best workmen have rono or are going is, no doubt, ail jverstatement. It is true, however, }hat we are losing a serious proportion of our most promising young maorial, land the disquieting fact is that Ihis is happening on a progressive wale during a period of great prosperity at Homo. If we. were sufferng from depression of trade and un miployment the movement would lr ntelligible, and Tiigjht give a melun•holy satisfaction; but the coincidence >f a hugo and ever rising tide of emigration with a rising and trnsatisfiort lemand fof competent labour Home is a fact which cannot be .regarded without misgiving. There is something wrong with a country where that happens. If it continues, will not strengthen the Empire, cannot fulfil its mi«lion unlesg it is sound at the heart.."
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 11 July 1913, Page 4
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856THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1913. IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 11 July 1913, Page 4
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