WANTED: POPULATION.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12683, 22 December 1906, Page 10

WANTED: POPULATION.

METHODS OF NATIONAL ADVERTISING.

-11.-AUSTRAJ_IA AND FttX. ") "I go wbero I thall hate to wear My boots upon my head, i At night about raj business f»r», And spend the day in bcsd, If e'er it snows, Wear thinner clothae. And be in all things npfide down, From head ol aole to foot of crown." -MELLOR SQUISH. It is no longer necessary to assure Giles of Little Puddleoombe that Australia is not any more upside down than Mudfordshire. But if you want him to ciiligrtto to the Antipodes, you may well use camera and printer's ink to tell him many things about the Island Continent. "New South Wales, welcomes the immigrant and settler," is inscribed among the fine series of agricultural views in the court of tliat State at the Exhibition. But New South Wales doeBS more than welcome, she invites the immigrant, and she waylays him with information calculated to make him wish to come. Mr N. J. Durie, the Executive Secretary for New South Wales, talk.cd of these things to a reporter. He told of the formation of the Intelligence Department, upon which devolves the duty of furnishing any kind of information about New South Wales to anybody who asked for it, be he a prospective settler, tourist, or investor, or one of those who only "want to know, you know." Mr H. C. L. Andenson, who is best known here as Executive Commissioner for New South Wales at the Exhibition, is director of Intelligence Department. Tho headquarters aro in Sydney, but much of tbe work is done through the Agent-General in London, Mr T. A. Coghlan. To him are sent quantities of printed matter about the State, which he distributes in likely quarters. He also communioates, through the post or by personal interviews with aa many intending im-

"I go w_«ro I shall hate to wear My boots upon my head, l At night about my business far*, And apend the day in bed, If e'er it snows, Wear thinner clothse. And be in all things npaide down, From head ot aole to foot of crown." -MELLOR SQUISH. It is no longer necessary to assure Giles of Little Puddleoombe that Australia is not any mors upside down than Mudfordshire. But if you want him to enrigrtte to the Antipodes, you may well nse camera and printer's ink to tell him many things about the Island Continent. "New South. Wale*, welcomes the immigrant and settler," is inscribed among the fine series of agricultural views in the court of tliat State at the Exhibition. But New South Wales does more than welcome, she invites the immigrant, and she waylays him with information calculated to make him wish to come. Mr N. J. Durie, the Executive Secretary for New South Wales, talked of these things to a reporter. He told of the formation of the Intelligence Department, upon which devolves the doty of furnishing any kind of information about New South Wales to anybody who asked for it, be he a prospective settler, tourist, or investor, or one of those who only "want to know, you know." Mr H. C. L. Anderson, who is best known here as Executive Commissioner for New South Wales at the Exhibition, is director of tie Intelligence Department. Tho headquarters aro in Sydney, but much of the work is done through the Agent-General in London, Mr T. A. Coghkn. To him are sent quantities of printed matter about the State, which he distributes in likely quarters. He also communioates, through the post or by personal interviews with as many intending im-

migrants as possible. Lectures on New South W «ks are also given in Great Britain, posters are published, advertisements are inserted in new6papora. and abort effectively written articks are offered gratis'_s■*> editors. Although there is a eoonsiderable movement of population among tlie States of Australasia, New South Wales is trying to get the settlers she wante, not from her neighbours, but from tlie Old Country. So far she Ls not working America and tlie European Continent. The Intelligence Department's finest literary production 60 far is tho " Guide for Immigrants and Settlers." As it has already received notice in these columns, it may here suffice to say tliat its 420 ample and beautifully illustrated pages form a veritable settler's cyclopaedia of the State, a largo number of experts having contributed articles on special subject*. Mr Durie 6ays that New South Wales is spending about £7000 a. year on newspaper advertising, and about £10,000 on advertising of all kinds. The splendid framed photographs which now help to adorn tlie court at thc Exhibition will he cent Home later on, to be displayed where they will do the most good. A policy of esrMsted immigration was initiated at tlie beginning of this year, and a man can now get'a passage from England for as little as £8. WTien he arrives, the Intelligence Department is ready to help him find whatever he wants, and if he takes up land, he can journey to his selection for half the usual railway fare, and consign his belongings at half the regular freight charges. New South Wales is also making a forward movement in the tourist business. One of the moist charming publications that the Exhibition has evoked Ls the pamphlet in which the Mother Colony invites New Zealanders and others to oomo and see "its wild and beautiful soenery, ils queer birds and strange unfamiliar animals." The Government Tourist Bureau at Sydney will plan itineraries and organMe personally conducted toum. --•"Y i <* or - a _'" »aid Commissioner Nicholls, when discovered at the Court of that State, "is not advertising for mAnigrants. We have a groat extent of country which is splendidly adapted by Nature for settlement, but rimch of it was alienated in Jarge holdings more than half a century ago, when Victoria was a part of New 6o_th Wake. The Government is now buying back a number of the great estatet under the Closer Settlement Act of ISo4—hero is an illustrated pamphlet about it—and I hope we shall, after a time, be in a position to specially invite immigration.. Tourists? Yes, we are opening a Tourist Bureau in Melbourne, to make our people acquainted with the beautiful places in their own State, and to advertise these attractions in such a way as to bring tourists into the country. We have gloriou* scenery in Gippsland and other parts, and it only wants making known." Copies of the Victorisn ••Set*-ler_ , Guide and Handbook of the Land Laws" may bo had gratis at the court It is a handy volume of 80 pages, plentifully furnished with,pictures and informative maps The letterpress might have been made more attractive, but it should be borne in mind that the book is obviously meant to give information to those -who already have a desire for it, rather than, to captivate the attention of the indiffesrent. Arriving at the South' Atwt&lian Court, the peripatetic fiom the Commissioner, jllrVD, p. Scott, that that State i*ir_6t ajb present taaking any great efforts to attract population. The policy of breaking up large estates has only just begun. Other fine settlement .lands are also being opened np in the. West and in the Pinaroo country, but with regard to immigration, arrapgomenta. •South Australia is waiting for the establishment'of the .Federal High Commissionerahip, in' connection with which it is anticipated that an Emigration Bureau for the whole of AngrtraTia WiH be established in London. Mr Scott particularly hopes that tbe Bureau will be in charge of a man who knows Australia, instead of who -has never' been out of London, as was the "case with the head of the - Emigration Bureau set up by the British Government after the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886. Finally, Mr eflbott increased. tbe xeoorter*% -Iready heavy load of inform-' ing literature by handing him a-sub-stantial roll of pamphlets 'and oft<6iat documents. From one of -these it np* ptared that the Government Resident in the SNoirthera Territory wid, in his last annual report, that* what the Territory has lacked in the peat, and lacks even more to-day, is population. As a means of attracting it. he suggests the completion of the Transcontinental Railway, a eoontinuanee of Government prospecting for gold and coal, the establishment of closer pastoral settlement with mixed fanning,' assistance to immigrants, and free grants of land to married settler* with families. - \ Fiji has published, specially for the Exhibition, a neat, well-written, and well-printed "Handbook"," full of information about tho Archipelago, and letting forth in <*onvin6jng language it* claims as a plaoe of resort for toarists, and tbe special advantages H offen "both to the capitalist and the man of work and enterprise with a reasonable sum of money." What New Zealand is doing in the way of national advertising must be reserved for a concluding article.