EMIGRANTS FOR AUSTRALIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9184, Issue 9184, 7 April 1910, Page 5

EMIGRANTS FOR AUSTRALIA.

WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.

(By Electric Telegraph—Copyeight. . (Per Press association.) LONDON, April 6. Sir George Reid has issued a statement saying there is some ground for the recent strictures upon the advertisements of some Australian employers for married women without encumbrances, but those cases, which are regrettable, are not common. To extend their significance into general unwillingness to welcome married immigrants is a gross injustice. "Australia wants workers and their wives and families," says Sir Geo. Reid. The statement quotes Premier Deakin's telegram, showing that the assistance offered to married immigrants and their children is greater than that offered by anv country seeking population. The truth is that Australia has no fixed agricultural labouring class. The farm worker of to-day becomes a prosperous farmer in a few years, and industrious British emigrants may go assured that they have power quickly to become freeholders. Wages arc high and land is obtainable at easy prices. Received April 7, 8.10 a.m. LONDON, April 6.

The Times, in a leader, cordially sympathises with the gist of Sir George Rent's statement, but declares that the spokesmen of Australian opinion, official and unofficial, arc sometimes oyerhasty in resenting criticism. The original ar- . ticle did not complain of Australian Governments, but appealed to owners of farms, particularly absentee landlords. It is surprising that such an appeal was not rigorously supported by the representatives of Australian interests in England, particularly by the High Commissioner. The Times quotes one of Mr spccehes as proof of its correspondent s facts. It adds: "It is unnecessary to inveigh against the actions of Australian farmers or farm managers, but- their actions are a serious menace to Australia's most vital interests. A large number of Australians fail to grasp some _of the elementary features of the immigration problem. The most elementary is that the supply of sound white immigrants is likely in the coming years to fall considerably below the demand. Australia must show greater inducements than rival countries equally anxious for the best kind of immigrants and must not take them as a thankless gift. Australia will also have to import its immigrants young and rear them in its own atmosphere for its own ends." The Pall Mnll Gazette comments on the question of immigrants "with encumbrances," and remarks that whether the veto on children is based on climatic or economic reasons it is a strange policy for a Continent requiring above everything population. It is arbitraryenough to pick and choose the ablebodied few and leave England with the undesirable remainder, but it is race suicide to discourage the accepted few from adding to their number.