®|f mwteton WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1012. BRITISH EMIGRANTS. 0-

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1620, 11 December 1912, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1912. BRITISH EMIGRANTS.

The steady drain by emigration upon a self-supporting section of the British population has created in the Old Country a feeling of uneasiness which found expression «in Parliament in a question by Me. Chiozza Money in, the House of Commons recently. He asltM.whether ; the Board of Trade returns for tho six months ended September last did not show a net loss by emigration of. 209,331 souls,; and whethor this unprecedented figure was not mainly duo to the activity of the Dominion Governments. The Prime Minister, in his reply, admitted the figure, but pointed. out that the net total emigration for the past twelvo months is estimated not to have exceeded 270,000, while the excess of births over deaths for the same period was 462,000. moreover, .that while in the ten years 1891-1900 72 per cent, of British, emigrants went to foreign countries, and only 28 per cent, to British dominions, in the ten years 1901-1910. the Empire's oversea dominions absorbed 56 per cent, of the emigrants ' from Great Britain. In the year 1910 the Empire kept 68 per cent., losing 32 to foreign countries, while the following year the Empire lost only 20 per cent, to foreign countries. Not long ago the .New South Wales Government by advertisement offered attractive inducements to persons desirous of emigrating from Great Britain, and while according the scheme of the oversea State its approval and good wishes, the London Timqs took occasion to sound a note of warning upon "tho somewhat disquieting success" which has attended the efforts of the British dominions "to secure the best kind of British emigrant."

"Wo have to admit," says the "Times," "that even the present flow of emigration, much as it may promise in future strength, is actually, and for imm«diate purposes weakening,' not' strengthening;' our defensive power.- For- every taxpayer lost to the United, Kingdom is so much lost to the' wealth andi man power on which the main burden' of Imperial s<y ourity still reste. .Were-tho• Empire a single organisation in matters, pf defence, or were the charges 'whicli it involves at least more evenly bestowed between' tho different points, the United. Kingdom would have nono but a selfish and shortsighted _ cause for grudging her surplus population to the other members of tho family; but tho charges ore not evenly bestowed, and every taxpayer lost by emigration to the dominions increases the disproportion of the Mother Country's task. Nor does this disproportion tell on tho financial side- alone. Its other bearing may bo judged from the fact that a recruiting office for the Canadian Navy is being opened in Portsmouth this week."

A serious aspect of British emigration, from the Mother Country's point of view, is the fact that a very largo percentage of the population lost to the dominions is of the capable working class. Emigration in its present form is doing little to mitigate the distress and poverty which is a noticoable feature of most British towns. It takes .away the "eapablcs," leaving the proportion of "incapables" to population larger than before. Another point, statistically proved, is that while in Great Britain women are a million more numerous than men, in all the dominions there is an excess of men over women. Yet the obvious adjustment which could have been secured by emigration has not been applied to reverse or equalise the proportion. Of the adult British emigrants who left the United Kingdom last year, 158,190 were men, and only 102,720 were women. "Government inducements to emigrants," suggests the Times, "should perhaps be more carefully supervised than is at present the case: but with that reservation, we would not retard in any. way the activities which have borne so much fruit of late."

"We can," it adds, "keep our better population if wo try, and the dominions will still find amplo material for - their needs in tho classes which tliey nt present repel. Let us make our meaning perfectly clear. We do not sugsest that'what is no good in England will be good elsewhere. It will not, and the dominions are right in not accepting it. Hut townbred and shim-bred population is as good ae any if it is saved from its surroundings young enough, and. brought up in aiojita' W, Tksxo li«s & eouroa of ami..

gration which, properly worked, will provo twice )>)oil, lor it will ip'vn llio dominions (lie Miuml llfilisli sliieh which they desire, ami initiijiile. in.'ilcad of :i|(grnvnting, ,tho bunlvii <>( niciuly in llnwu islands."

While appreciafciiiK lliin miggonl.ion from the Mather UimiiU'/h [mini of view, tho public of Now /culimd would recoil from Uio proMpoct of receiving immigriuifs of a lowor class than that prracrilmil by our immigration laws. The Times has noted a real, and perhaps an urgent, p/oh--Icm in British emigration, but it is ono to wliieh no simple solution can he seen. If the stream _ of nniigratioiv to the overseas dominions is not maintained, it may he diverted to foreign countries, as the statistics show was tho case not so long ago.