AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 105, 3 May 1912, Page 11

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

THE IMMIGRATION TIDE STILL THEY COME. fjFROM Otm OWN CORRESPONDENT,] SYDNEY, 27th April. By the steamer Pakeha, which arrived from London on Wednesday, over a thousand immigrants reached Sydney. The Pakeha brought out a similar number on hei last trip. The tide of immigration continues unabated, and 'the result is seen in increasing' prosperity all round. The majority of the newcomers were nominated by friends or relatives already in the State, and include 300 agriculturists, 24 bricklayers, 53 carpenters, and 7 domestics, and an interesting feature is the number of new .. families that have come out' this 'time, no fower than 300 children, being on boaid. Most of the mothers of the children are the wives of men who came out five or Fix months ago and have decided to make their homes "here. Some of the immigrants comprise the "specially selected artisans" chosen in accordance with the Government's new policy, and they are classified as Government immigrants, as distinguished from the nominees. Ninety-two agriculturists, 29 carpenters, one bricklayer, and the domestics ate thus accounted for. There are- also 15 boys for the Dreadnought farm. The number of domestics is but a very email drop in the bucket. Maids of all descriptions are almost impossible to get, even for high wages, and the gent-eel "lady help" who is willing to take less money so long as she gets more liberty and is treated as one of the family is almost as scarce.' Wives have to do their own work nowadays, unless they happen to' be blessed with daughters who are old enough to take a hand ; the trouble is that they cannot get the necessary help while their daughters are young, and consequently this militates against large families. Further big batches of immigrants are on their way out. Two steamers, with about 2000 souls on board, will be due next month. In June about 500 are expected to arrive, and a steady stream is assured by almost every steamer catering for the service for some time to conn?. CLOSEB SETTLEMENT. Allied with the question of immigration k that of closer settlement, a policy which is being generally pursued by all the States of the Commonwealth. In this connection an informative series of articles has just been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, under the heading of "New Settlers." There is one man, or one company, with an area of land ahnost as large as the whole of Tasmania. This is in - the Northern. Territory. Referring to the northern part of New South Wales, the writer remarks : "Ten years ago the country was all held by pastoralists, under occupation, licenses, and ivas used solely for the purpose of growing and fattening cattle and sheep. One firm, Messrs. Tindal and Son, held no less than 390 square miles of country in New South Wales, near the Queensland border, and they also held some sixty square miles on the Queensland side. The Scottish-Australian Investment Company, owners of Texas station, held probably 150 square miles in New South Wale» and 110 square miles m Queensland — all part of one great 'run. 1 M^eesvs Lawler, owners of Bengalla, Bowman - Bros. t owners of Maidenhead,' Mr... P. Jeffrey, owner of Mingoola, all had large leaseholds in both States. The greater part of these Crown lands havewithin^ the last few years been taken from them, and cut up into small holdings, varying in size from 160 to 10,000 acres— large areas still in some caees, but nothing compared to former days. Tn© bulk ■ oi the country is now being used for sheep, dairying, wheat-grow-ing, and tobacco-growing. The lease of the balance of these Crown lands will expire in a few years, and most of the land will, no doubt, be cut up for closer settlement purposes. A few years ago a man could travel tor twenty miles in any direction and say, 'All this land is mine.' Ho can no longer do this. The country is at last becoming inhabited. And it is a land of plenty — magnificent wheat country, only waiting for the plough and the railway that is to bring the wheat to market. It is so elsewhere. All over tho State this land movement ie going on. Thousands of our own people in New South Wales are taking up land ; thousands from other States and New, Zealand; thousands from the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Within the lasi few years there has been a marked exodus of Victorian .farmers, who have looked across the border and seen that the land was good. Victorian , syndicates." bought large tracts of land in New South Wales and sold them in suitable blocks to Victorian farmers. t These latter have settled there and prospered, and have written to their friends. Their friends have followed them. Kyogle, for in stance, is practically a Victorian 'colony. New Zealand farmers have set tied here, and have brought other New Zealanders over. All this is but the beginning of what hto be. 'Twenty million acres of Crown lands,' says Mr. Beeby, 'are lying idle and inaccessible for want ot railways, and a great portion of these Jands is suitable for closer settlement.' When our big private estates have disappeared, as they are disappearing, when the developmental railways of which the Minister has spoken have been made, and tht. millions of acres of Crown lands have been thrown open and settled, New South Wales will have reached a state of prosperity compared to which our prosperity to-day will be as nothing. Wo have the land, and we shall get the people. As t a great American once said, 'God isn't going to make another acre of land, but He is making babies all the time.' "

NEW ZEALAND LABOUR PARTY. "The 'objects' announced by the United Labour Party in New Zealand constitute the widest-mouthed programme that has ever been propounded since Jack Ca<le put hie policy on reccrd." So begins a leading article in yerterday's Daily Telegraph. The paper cc-mmende the programme for one thing— that it is entirely candid. Labour is riot the power in New Zealand that it is in Australia, and that is perhaps because it has been to a large extent checkmatr-' by the policy of the late Ward Government Legislation in the Dominion has been of a eufliciently Socialistic kind without a etrong Labour party, and for that reason the workers have in tho past been content to give their votes to the Uovernment. The future of the Labour party over there will doubtless depend on the attitude of tho now Government towards the workers. " The Australian LabourSocialist party/ the Telegraph goes on to say, '_' usually works by stealth for its Socialistic ideale, and disclaims them whenever challenged Jtbout them. The New Zealand Labourites go to v tho other extreme. They seem to want everything in tho way of revolutionary reconstruction of society that has ever been put forward, and to want it all at onee — though to begin with they propoee to compress the whole- drama of Socialistic rearrangement into one short and swift act by orduinilig that the incomes of tho peoplo shall be raised to such figures as will enable them to purchase .' tho total products vf their labour.' There is no

explanation as to whether the employer is expected to go on finding^ capital and direction and organising ability while his employees gradually eat his . profits away, but perhaps we may regard that as one of those details which are ignored in times when ' men meet, and meet on manly business.' What is also indicated is Labour's determination to play a lone hand there as elsewhere — if it can. Already Labourites have contemptuously denounced the party they are nominally allied to, and the clear intention is to cut loose altogether and undertake an independent campaign. In this they will be encouraged by the success of Labour candidates for the Mayoralty in. both Christchurch and Wellington."