THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Monday, November 16, 1908. POPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12400, 16 November 1908, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Monday, November 16, 1908. POPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT.

ALTHoqan the . fierce outburst made by the unemployed throughout the Dominion a short time ago has exhausted itself, there is evidence that a great number of men are still out of work. Wellington in particular 1 seems to be feeling the industrial depression at present, and a batch of. recently arrived there fquncSl the conditions .little better than those they left in the. Old ; Country, according' to a Press Association telegram received a / few days ago. Generally 'speaking, however, the position is not now acute, 'the bulk of the bqna fide seekers of employment .having been absorbed by the Government and private contractors at the commencement of the contracting season. The problem of unemployment in new countries, where there should be no lack of work for all classes, was treated in a rather new light recently by an American globe trotter, in conversation'with a representative of a Melbourne newspaper. The traveller was provoked to talk by the suggestion that the. United States were now fully peopled, and that the pressure of- population was .beginning to create some difficult problems for the authorities.. He explained the, lack of employment by the lack of ,popu- : .lation to provide it, a remedy- that probably would not find ; favour with New Zealand trade unions. The American, however, was ready to show that his country had not reached the limit of its power of absorb'tion. Jn 1903 immigrants were entering, the United States at the rate of half a million a: year j in 1904 the.nite was, increased to threequarterk of a million; in 1905 to a' million ; in 1906 to considerably over a million; and in 1907 to a million and a quarter. " Canada has been - welcoming new, population in ; the same" way, and the American,- who was indignant at the idea of the United States being, f ulty : peopled, strongly recommended the Commonwealth to follow the example? of the Dominion, 'If Australia had its share of horsersense," .he said, ''it would apply Canada's lesson to itsown case. We are taking in at the eastern seaboard a million raw immigrants yearly from ' Europe and bver-spillihg a hundred thousand or so finished citizens into Canada over our northern border. We gain in the process, and so does Canada. Why cannot Australia tempt twenty thousand, or even ten thousand a year from our Western States ? Boom Australia in the States and you will get plenty of men to furrow your plains. They will bring experience and money. Every man' lon board the American fleet will go back to the United States an - emigration agent for Australia and New Zealand, but most of them will not meet the right people to be told the tidings of great joy. You should have your agents arid your Jiterature out in the middle States and id the West, - and your Government should run a ferry from bur continent to yours. You'll get plenty of passengers, and every one carrying a gripsack bulging with dollars. We have more men than acres ; you have more acres than men. That was what was tlio matter with Canada. . Canada feels better now ; we don't feel any the worse." A Canadian, who joined Jn the "supported the view of ; the American; but just -now it would appear that neither Canada nor America - is ; able to make the Jot of : its "raw Immigrants" particularly comfortable. 'Neither the 'United States nor Canada has hitherto, as far (l as we are aware, been looked upon by our immigration authorities as a potential recruiting ground, but if "finished citizens" could be procured from there so % easily, the experiment might be worth trying.