EMIGRATION IN A NEW LIGHT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2175, 19 December 1885, Page 3

EMIGRATION IN A NEW LIGHT.

'The''! pall' Mall Uawate'" is of opinion r that the colonies and the nnthcr country sliould federate on the question of ernegration, if on no other, in order that so far as the distribution of surplus labor is concerned, the whole Empire can be treated as an administrative unit, like England or Scotland, and holds that the enormous tracts of waste and unoccupied land which liojn tho back country, say, of Australia should belong to the whole Empire, and not to the first fow handsful of colonists who squat on the rim of the continent. Our contemporary takes a very roseate view of the Mure. It says: —"For our part we are disposed to look forward to the establishment of a free ocean bridge between all parts 6f the Empire as a possibility by no means so remote as some may bo inclined to think it. The shrinkage of the world goes on apace, and the ferry boats of the Empiro may in time be made as free as tho bridges across the Thames. It is not so long ago that everyone paid toll in crossing from Westminster to Lambeth, just as overyone now must pay for his ticket to Canada to Australia. In a fow years we may be as familiar with free passages between the Mother Country and the colonies as we are with free bridges between the banks of our great river. Of all the keys to tho solution of the social problem, this appears to be the most simple and tho most hopeful. Passengers may have to victual themselves en route, but tho transit will be free, and we wish that some of the managers of our great steamship companies would calculate tho annual charge which such a freeing of the ocean tolls would impose on the Budget of the Empire, The establishment of an Imperial penny postage is a more immediate step which might be taken in the right direction, and taken at once, The moment the unity of the Empire is firmly erased, and Canada and Victoria are regarded as being as much integral units of one country as Sussex and Durham, the chief difficulty disappears. If we are to advance State funds, as wo are now advancing them, to buy miserable plots of land in the Old Country on which a half-starved laborer may eko out a miserable existence, why should wo scruple to advance a less sum of money to plant out families on spacious farms over the sea where they could live and thrive to some purpose ? The more the problem is studied, tho more clearly will it appear that the maintenance of the Empire and the consolidation of its unity are indispensable to the solution of our social problem."