EMPIRE SETTLEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19542, 28 April 1927, Page 6

EMPIRE SETTLEMENT

OVERSEA COMMITTEE'S REF9RT

FIVE YEARS' ADMINISTRATION

INCREASED MIGRATION,

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

LONDON, April 27,

(Received April 28, at 12.20 p.m.)

The Oversea Settlement Committee’s report for 1926, marking _ the close of the first five years’ administration of the Empire Settlement Act, announces that improving conditions overseas and further facilities for assisted passages resulted in an increase of assisted migrants under the Act from 39,559 in 1925 to 66,103 in 1926, of whom 25,999 were children. The figures for Australia are 22,527 and 32,732, an increase of 10,205; New Zealand, 8,097 and 11,796; Canada-, 8,809 and 21,344, an increase of 12,535; and South Africa, 126 and 232.

Great Britain’s annual excess of births and immigration over deaths and emigration has fallen from 383,000 in 1911 to 175,806 in 1926. Tho net migration movement from Great Britain in 1926 was 115,538, against 84,259 in 1925.

The report stresses the findings of the Imperial Conference’s sub-cqmmit-teo to the effect that future official action must be based on recognition of the fact that whilst the bulk of the population here is urban, settlement in the dominions must be based on agricultural development. The principal results of the sub-com-mittee’s worn lias been to grant free passages to women house workers to Australia, which is already operating, and new schemes for land settlement in New Zealand, and rural housing in Australia, both of which are being arranged. The Australian £34,000 ; 000 loan agreement of 1925 will be modified in view of the increasing number of schemes of development, many of which have already been sanctioned, involving loans of £3,000,000. The sub-coramitte© welcomes the development of the Migration Commission, with which it proposes to keep in closest touch, recognising that developmental research is most effective in accelerating redistribution of population. The report concludes by stressing the importance of agricultural training in the three English centres of Cattenck. Claydon, and Crandon. It is intended to shorten the courses and to increase the accommodation. _ A residential course in London is being arranged to prepare domestics for Australia, in batches of forty.—‘ Argus ’and Sydney ‘ Sun ’ Cable. SUMMARY OF FIGURES. (British Official News.) Press Association— By Wireless—Copyright. RUGBY, April 27. (Received April 28, at 11 a.m.) The report of the Overseas Settlement Committee shows that the net emigration from Great Britain to all countries during 1926) that is th 4 balance of emigration over immigration) was 115,538 compared with 84,259 in 1925. Altogether 66,103 settlers received assistance under the provisions of the Empire Settlement Act, as against 39,559 in 1925. They wore distributed as follows: —Australia, 32,732; Canada, 21,344; New Zealand, 11,795; ond South Africa, 232.