The Dominion. FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1908. AUSTRALIAN PROBLEMS-IMMI. GRATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 192, 8 May 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1908. AUSTRALIAN PROBLEMS-IMMI. GRATION.

• By far the greatest of the problems before Australia to-day is • that of imj migration, and of all the subjects to be r discussed by the premiers' Conference i there is none on which so much has been said and so little done. With the discovery of gold >in 1851, a great • stream of population was directed towards Australia, 1 ' anjj flowed steadily . on until, the industrial depression of the early nineties, when it died away to nothing, and has ever since remained insignificant. A Parliamentary return - of 1905, for instance, showed the net > gain of population from , over-sea to have been only 2377 in the* ten years from 1892 to'_ 1901. Since the years of the great crisis the political interest in Australia has centred around the ) struggle of the Labour'' party for su- . premacy, _ and as that party regarded »•, immigration as a capitalistic device 1 for keeping wages down the'years were allowed to slip by without anything being done. - The rise of Japan as a first-class military power drove home ,to all .parties the cold fact that unless they effectively occupied the continent their Asiatic exclusion laws must in . the long, run become so much" wastepaper. '■ : Queensland was the only one ' of the' States which had been\ offering any jpducemehts to immigrants,'but in the . last few years New, South Wales, Victoria, and jWfestern. Australia, have. taken up the work, and . already there' is .again . a' small but > steadily-increasinjg.drift..,of population • towards Isolated work by ' the States is considered by-many an altogether inadequate solution of the problem, and there has latterly arisen a demand for a, national immigration policy on a scale that should rival ■ Canada's. ~ ... ~ It has found its leading advocate . in Mr. Deakin; who,' in many i stirring speeches during the past three or four years, has time and again declared' that Australia must either get I population or cease to' be; Mr. Dea- ; kin's eloquence has as yet, resulted'in nothing beyond a 'few, small 'votes on ■ the Commonwealth, Estimates for advertising the attractions of Australia., .The obstacles, in the way of a successful CommonWealth policy are, however, very great, if not insuperable. _The control of the lands is entirely in the hands of the States, and the Commonwealth, acting alone; could do no more, than dump immigrants' in the. ports, and there leave them to shift'-for themselves. As the chief cities already contain from 30 to 40 per cent, of the population of . the States,i and have each a chronic unemployed problem, the only" result would, be ..to accentuate an already undesirable state" of f affairs. ; Close and harmonious co-operation ' is therefore .necessary, between- the Federal and' State Governments, and. Mr. Deakin proposes that, in order, to avoid cutthroati competition and unnecessary duplication, the Commonwealth should undertake the work of advertising the country, and, attracting •„ prospective immigrants,: and then, haying secured them, it would hand them over to the various State Governments, who would .provide suitable /land 'for settlement, and any further' assistance: that, might be necessary. ' The idea 1 has not been cordially received by the States. Mr 1 . Deakin; has never explained the principle on which' the ' Commonwealth, having attracted immigrants,, would distribute them among v th'o various States. Moreover, the cut-throat competition of which v he has spoken seems to be regarded by mostof'the Premiers as no more' than a healthy rivalry. ... The curious part of the situation is that, while' Mr. Deakin is making his eloquent speeches, and conducting his so-far fruitless negotiations with the States, nothing is being done to.pdpulate that large, empty, but apparently , fertile space known as the Northern Territory, which the Commonwealth has power to acquire absolutely from the State of South Australia. It is the North which cries aloud for settlers, and it is . the North where the. Commonwealth may place them, but does not. Early last yertr Mr. Deakin signed an agreement with Mr. Price, Premier of South Australia, for the transfer of ythe Territory to the Commonwealth. ' This was promptly ratified by the State Government, but has not yet been considered by the Federal Parliament. The terms are, indeed, so favourable to' South Australia that ratification, by the Commonwealth is not thought likely. It is on the possibility of . permanent occupation of the tropical parts of the continent by a white labouring, population that the future of the great White Australia policy depends. It has been proved physically quite possible for white men to do all the .work of the sweltering sugar fields, of Northern Queensland; it is'also'economically possible —with aid of a stiff tariff and a bonus; but neither in Australia nor anywhere else has it yet been shown to be possible for white working men and women to live from generation to

generation within'the tropics and roar strong and healthy families. The evidence so far has all been the other way. Here is Australia's greatest problem, and here is the work which her eloquent Prime Minister seems least ready to undertake in a practical way.