BRITISH EMIGRATION.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13645, 10 February 1913, Page 6

BRITISH EMIGRATION.

Legislation designed to check the 7 hitherto rather free arrival of immigrants into the United States, of America is now under consideration, a Bill with the object stated having been i^itiroduoed by Senator* /Durnetii. Of the .white population of the States, some 82,000,000, about 28,000,000 were acquired by- immigration, and the respective ratios of increase by reproduction and by immigration have boon undergoing a notable change during the last sixty years. For, the decade ended in 1850 the total,increase in..popu-' :iationVequalle^;3svß7..p©rvcent^-4>f ; rwhich,; 35"!83 per cent, represented the excess of births over deaths and 10.04 per cent, the margin of arrivals over departures. By steady degrees* the position changed until by 1910 is was reversed. .In the 1909r1910, deoennium there, was a total swelling of the population of just under "sixteen millions, equivalent to 21.02 per cent ~ immigration accounting for the greater half—ll.s7 per cent., ac against 9.45 per cent, from T*opro#.icti»n. Ab the United States will very soon contain a hundred million people, there seems reason in a proposition to begin to exercise a greater measure of selection of immigrants. The matter is not without interest to us, (says "New Zealand Times") since I the passing of legislation of the kind contemplated-is sure to set prospective emigrants in the United Kingdom examining the prospects offered by British countries oversea. - : '.',' ■

Every year, there is,, a, substantial stream of migration from. Britain to America, the; not loss/to the, former an the .ftve v|years' 1907 W 1911 inclusive amounting to over 311,000 persons. If this movement is diverted so that emigrants remain xmdor their own.flag it will be wo]]. The supply of Britishers for peopling'the sparsely-populated, portions of the Empire is by no means inexhaustible, .-though'■■'thoro ,is liavdly any limits to the available space: in the Dominions —provided, ;i« we liave always insisted, that adequate measures are taken for profitable absorption, of the new comers. Probably Canada stands to gain, most from a restriction of British migration to, the United States. Thi« woxild . be- much preferable to :her, Jatest, enterprise in :iraport-■■iiig-*liip]bacTs; of people.from Austria.