A CURIOUS EXODUS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7383, 8 February 1902, Page 2

A CURIOUS EXODUS.

Under the above heading the editor of the Australasian Keview of Reviews notices the large and not easily accountable exodus which is taking place from the States of Australia, and more especially from Victoria, to South Africa. This is in addition to the federal troops which are beiug despatched, and in spite of obsta6les to indiscriminate immigration into the new and old colonies of South Africa. In addition to the permit without which none is allowed to land, each immigrant must show that he is possessed of £100 in money. Within a few days, over 500 persons in Victoria secured such permits, and the number of permits in the other States is still very considerable. We have not observed any such general movement in New Zealand, but the large number of applications for inclusion in the various contingents betokens a desire not altogether to be accounted for by military ardour in the cause of the Empire. It is believed that in the case of some officers a condition of service has been applied for which would leave at the officer's option his return or settlement in South Africa, and it is probable that many of the young fellows of the rank and file hope to find legitimate excuse for avoiding the condition of return the Government has insisted on. There are many inducements just now held out to induce men of the right sort to settle in South Africa, and those going from these colonies are emphatically of the kind desired. The 500 permits granted in Melbourne represent to Victoria the loss not only of 500 producers, but of £50,000 in capital. The enrolment of so large a number of young men m New Zealand is already causing a dearth of labour in those branches of industry such as mustering and the work round shearing sheds and stations which those young fellows are wont to perform. We can readily understand the feeling which prompts young men to desire to travel and see more of the world, and we can quite believe that, descended from families of emigrants, colonials may b9 more prone than ordinary, by heredity, to wandering. Kipliug has noted the habit of wandering which is formed, in the soldier, and the difficulty in getting rid of it. " For to admire and for to see, For to be'old this world so wide — . It never dona no good to me, But I can't drop it if I tried." We can also understand the attraction which a large gold rush has for the young, lusty, virile, and strong, but there is not, and will not be, any rush to South Africa in the Australian sense, where, all have equal opportunity on a large alluvial field. The Transvaal is not a poor man's diggings ; it is not even a field, as matters now stand, for the small capitalist, for one of the first things to be done is to divest the laws of those rules which give the plutocrat

the advantage, and shut out the prospector from profit. The enormous leads are not alluvial, hut banket, a kind of cement which needs expensive machinery, and the labor employed is black. Neither is the stone rich, but generally of low grade. As a field for the agriculturist and pastoralist, no one will be found even to compare the advantages of South Africa with "God's Own Country." It is certain that produce is fetching great prices at the present time of war, and that until things reoover good prices will probably be realised for the supply of the goldfields, but there has been that demand for years back for the supply of diamond and goldfielda populations, and yet the natural advantages of the country were never sufficient to insure a large immigration. The intending settler who takes up land in South Africa has not the mere forces of Nature in its ordinary mood to contend with as in smiling Maoriland, verdure clad and fountain specked, but Nature in its most sinister aspect and often in its most sinister mood. No one is advised by those advocating settlement to take up land till he has so sjcent a year or two studying the adverse conditions, the diseases of stock, the seasons of drought, and Ihe insect pests. Of the latter we had news the other day, when v wire it) for mod us that locusts had devoured the crops on the most fruitful grain-growing country of the Orange River Colony, and bad blocked the advance of trains with their bodies. It is everywhere conceded that no very considerable settlement can ensue until large areas are rendered fit for settlement by irrigation, aud irrigation adds enormously to the cost ot tbe land, and thus renders expensive the growing of crops and the roaring of stock. If satie factory returns could be got from the land in its natural state, with the markets they have, land would be as high in price as it is in New Zealand with the dairy industry, at least. Says Worafold : "In the year 1892 two million acres of Crown lands were sold in the Cape Colony. They realised a total pum of £128,025, tbat is to say, they sold at an average price per acre ot only (about) Is Bd." To be successful, agriculture and pastoral industries, especially in these days of intense competition, must be undertaken along the line 3cf the least resistance ; it artificial aids such as irrigation are necessary, those countries not requiring them will win. There is already a large agricultural and pastoral community, and there will probably be a large but still limited market in the Transvaal, but it is doubtful whether, for export purposes, South Africa will ever be able to compete with the cheap fat lands and cheap labour just acro3s the Middle Passage in the Argentine. The enquiry which the editor of the Review of Review makes is as applicable to Now Zealand as Victoria, if not more so. He asks :—": — " What should make such an army, composed mostly of native-born Australians, floe f rom their own shores in search of larger opportunities elsewhere? Ihe fact that the exodus is largest from Victoria is nut without its significance. It can hardly be" doubted that much of the semi-socialistic legislation of that State i 3 defeating its own purpose. It does not enlarge, it narrows, the possibilities of life to the young and the enterprising." That, perhaps, is probably the true answer to this curious problem.