EMIGRATION BOOM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 78, 4 April 1910, Page 7

EMIGRATION BOOM.

CHANCE FOR TARIFF REFORM WRITERS. DEPOPULATION OF IRELAND. FIGURES FOR LAST YEAR. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright, (Received April 4, 10 a.m.) LONDON, 3rd April. Tariff reform writers are using the emigration boom as an argument that freetrade is a failure. Twenty-nine thousand two hundred and thirty persons emigrated from Ireland in 1909, an increase of 5278 over the 1903 total. America attracted 76 per cent, of them. FARMERS WITH CAPITAL FOR NEW ZEALAND. (Received April 4, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, 3rd April. The High Commissioner for New Zealand (the Hon. W. Hall-Jones) states New Zealand is securing farmers with capital. MR. MOORE BUSY. ADDRESS TO BE GIVEN IN SEVERAL CENTRES. (Received April 4, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, 3rd April. The Hon. N. J. Moore (Western Australian Premier) is to visit Edinburgh, Glasgow, Preston, Bradford, Leeds, and Bristol, where he will give addresses upon the emigration of agriculturists. POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA. PRINCIPAL ELEMENT OF PROSPERITY AND DEFENCE. MARRIED COUPLES. By Telegraph.— Pre«3 Association. -Copyr'tht. LONDON, 2nd April. The Spectator says : — Population is tho principal element of Australian prosperity and defence, and it is some satisfaction to know that public opinion £n Sydney is not quite easy about the/ situation. Married couples with families naturally are not welcomed on stations worked on the line suggested by the Rev. Mr. Matthews's letter, but the taxing of employers out of existence will not benefit married couples wishing to retain both their situations and their children. Tho more generous treatment of managers and workmen by joint stock companies and non-resident squatters would probably in the end yield better servants and large profits. At the bottom of half the economic troubles of which we hear so much lies oxcessive taxation on behalf of Socialism — otherwise called social reform — and protection or some equally delusive alias. Until this error is corrected the mischief mentioned has a poor chance of abatement. Mr. Matthews, rector of Catsfield, and formerly of New South Wales, in a letter to The Times, congratulated the Australian correspondent of that journal on his courageous and outspoken utterance regarding the treatment of married immigrants. He attributes the treatment complained of to the callousness of companies or non-resident squatters owning a large proportion of the pastoral lands. Every expedient, he says, is resorted to in order to curtail expenses and augment profits. He warns owners that unless they grapple with the problem in the right way a Government will arise that will compel them to relinquish large portions of their holdings or tax them out of existence. The statement as to the difficulty that married immigrants with children experience in obtaining employment in Australia, is denied by the secretary of the Pastoralista' Union of New South Wales, in a letter sent to various Australian papers. He writes :—"I: — "I have asked a number of members of this union what their practice is in regard to this matter, and have received 106 replies. These replies represent all classes of stations, from small to large, and cover all parts of the State, and they disclose the following facts : — On twenty-two stations no married men are employed at the present time. The' remaining eighty-four stations each employ from one to eighteen married men, ; whose wives and families live with them on the stations. The total number of . children in these families is 953, or an average of over threo in each family. The impression that has got abroad regarding the non-employment of married j men by station-owners is due to the fact that where 'married couples' (the term applied to cases in which both man and wife are engaged) are employed it is generally stipulated that they shall be without children. Where the man only is employed, however, the objection to children does not arihe, indeed, many station-holders prefer employing men with families, because they are. as a rule, more reliable and permanent than single men."