STATE-AIDED EMIGRATION TO SOUTH AFRICA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11565, 23 April 1903, Page 4

STATE-AIDED EMIGRATION TO SOUTH AFRICA.

The system of State-aidsd emigration which in tho past has been «f such service in tlie settlement of these, colonies, is, according to a cable message in yesterday's papers, to be undertaken in an extended form by

the Colonial Office for -the benefit of South Africa. The State aid thus referred to is, <if course, to be granted by the Imperial (iovtrrment, though it tvill probably be supplemented to some extent by local contributions. This is the system at present pursued in reypect to female immigration to the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, concerning which a Blue Book vus is&ued last month at Home. From, thk we gather that the "South African Expansion Committee' , of ths British Women's Emigration Association last year enlistfd Mr Chamberlain'e aid to their project for fendiDg out a rnun ber r.f domeotic wrvanU to South Africa. In reply to questions put to him by Mr Chamberlain, Lord Miiner m'.ntior.ed the? the Transvaal Government/ had allocated £15,000 » year for assisting female immigration, and that he had established a 'Women's Immigration Depirtraent. *Each immigrant, he said, would be giren £5 as a contribution towards her pajMtag? mon-ey, and hostek vould bo provided in Capetown and Johan-

nesburg. Mr Chamberlain 'had artced whether the Expansion Comciittee referred to might, send out. one hundred women a month, but. at that time conditions in South Africa, apparently did not justify the acceptance of the offer, for Lord Milner declined to bo responsible for any fired number, nor, indeed, for any not aeked for- At that time, last June, tho TraDsvaal was practically the only place where any demand was likely to exist. Difficult!** then arese over tho rate of wages, which appears to hsve been thought insufficient. Mr Chamberlain mentioned a suggestion that female emigrants might be asked to sign a bond for the amount of their passage money if they did not take up employment appioved tiy some responsible authority within a re.ison*b"e time, after their arrival, though he believed such «■ bond t\ould d?t->r intending emigrant*. Lord Miluf-r, however, replied that such a bond had to be signed. Towards the end of the year it vn» found impossible to induce girl? to leave England before the- Christmas holidnvs. Thus do domestic difficulties.,

similar to those vrith -which mistresses in New Zealand arc familiar, lighten the paces of an Knelifh Blue Book. At last, when matters had become more settled in South Africa, and Lord Milner was expecting fifty female immigrants every fortnight, the finance* of the Expansion Committee proved unequal to the. task the commit t e<? had undertaken, and the Colonial Office enme to its assistance with an offer of a capitation grant of £1 a. head for all domestic servants sent off in fortnightly batches of fifty during the present, year. It does not sound a very generous grant, but it was eagerly accepted, and its judicious expenditure now lies in tho h-iuds of a joint committee, the. men nominated by the Colonial Oflice and the Indies representing the Expansion «Committee. Tho extension of the system which the Colonial Office has now in contemplation is probably in connection with the settlement of the land, which may not be. proceeding quite so fast as was hoped. The fault for ihie possibly lies with the regulations, as, according to recent news, a number of Australians who intended to settle there found the.se too irksome. It can hardly be intended to assist mechanics and artisans to emigrate, for the unemployed difficulty is apparently acute at Capetown. So much of the prosperity of South Africa, and especially of the new colonies, depends upon the early nnd judicious settlement of the land that it is to be hoped the Colonial Office*! scheme will prove a ruccces.