IMMIGRATION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8363, 25 February 1913, Page 11

IMMIGRATION

THE DRIFT INTO TOWNS. Sir Edgar Vincent, chairman of the empire xrade (commission, in an interview at Melbourne, said: “On the question of immigration the evidence taxon at Home certainly /mows tnat tnero nas teen a amt oi agricultural population into towns, mat, ox course, is not new. Xou proDauiy have tlie samo tnmg in Australia. me city lile has more excitements to offer people, and that is the. reason, 1 should say, why the proportion of the city to country resiaems. gets gradually larger. As to whetner a duty on food would increase the agricultural prosperity of England I am not inclined to express an opinion. One fact brought under our notice was tnat, whereas eigut years "ago sometiling like V 0 per cent, of tho immigration irom the United Kingdom was to foreign countries, now it is all the other way—only about 30 per cent,, or less, is to foreign countries, while nearly 76 per cent, is to the Dominions, principally Canada and Aus traiia. Tiiis is a state of affairs which is satisfactory as far as *it goes. No one doubts that population throughout th© Empire needs t*> be better distrifautod. “ You have as many people here as there are in Scotland, Four territory is just a hundred times as large as that of Hootland. No; x am not prepared to say that the United Kingdom wants to get rid of any large section of its people. The question of better distribution is one we are concerned with. It is certainly not a fact that there is any widespread dissatisfaction in England with tho results of immigration to Australia. I would say that at least 90 per cent, of those who have come out here have benefited by doing so. There must no doubt be a, few malcontents who will be failures wherever they go. But the evidence we have heard does not toll against Australia as a field for British immigrants. Indeed, it is mainly and almost entirely the other way. I believe, as I said, that the proportion to do well is fully 90 per cent, “A question for us to consider is the class of immigrants wanted here. There are two views on • the subject. Home want to see men sent out who' are 'just agricultural labourers and no more. The other view is that a more versatile sort of man—one who could' turn his band to something more than farm work—should be encouraged to come out. I presume the‘ kind of immigrant you would prefer is one who would not merely go on the land but stay there- We shall bo interested to hear what your experience has been in that regard, and how many; relatively speaking, of the immigrants that reach your shores go on the land with a determination to stay there, and how many drift into the towns.” “ You can say emphatically,” he remarked, in reply to another question, “ that there is no idea in England of using Australia as a dumping ground for people who are no use at Home, and’ hot wanted at Home. No British Government contemplates such a thing. It is absurd. -The Home authorities, as you know, exercise no selection whatever in regard to the classes of people who emigrate. AH that is arranged by your Australian representatives. ' Whether the methods now employed are the heat possible and whether the currents of immigration are being directed into tbo best channels with the best results' for all concerned is one of the matters into which wo will further inquire.” • •