The Waimate Advertiser. PUBLISHED MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY EVENINGS. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1912. THE SELECTION OF IMMIGRANTS.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XV, Issue 231, 25 November 1912, Page 2

The Waimate Advertiser. PUBLISHED MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY EVENINGS.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1912. THE SELECTION OF IMMIGRANTS.

"Hultum in Parvo.'

In our own little Dominion saner .counsels are beginning to prevail on Hie question of immigration. With the advent of the Reform Party to olliee, and with, a farmer as Minister for Labour, it was merely to be expected that, the problem of the supply of imported labour to meet the needs of the, agricultural industry would receive practical attention front the present Government. The fact must, not lie overlooked, however, that a steady stream of immigrants from the Old Country had already set in before the Massey Parly 100 kotlieo. We are not aware that the Hon. Thos. Mackenzie, the Dominion's High Commissioner, has yet elaborated a plan for the bener classification and more careful selection of immigrants than has obtained in connection with the New South Wale* a.ml Canadian drafts. New Zealand's shiploads so far have not been immigrants in the sense that they have been induced to come out here by offers of free land or anything of that kind They have received no other assistance towards the start they have made in this young country than a slight assistance in paying their passage money. Therefore, it is quite natural that the class of people arriving in. New Zealand should have been superior in the average to that being dumped into Sydney amd Montreal. Complaints of this promiscuous dumping of immigrants-often comparatively poora:nd inexperienced people having trades and professions quite unsuitcd to the needs of these sparsely-set-tled territories of Australasia and Western Canada -have been rife of late . in view of the indication thai Mr Massey has given thai a forward movement is about to be made in regard to inducing a free Mow of immigrants from the United Kingdom to this iahour-famined agricultural country, our readers will I'uid to be both iuteresing and suggestive some of the suggestions made by Mr T. W. Shellield, Acting Commissioner for Hegina, Saskatchewan, in London. Mr Sltellield is writing essentially in view of the needs of farming districts, and his words, therefore, are weighty. He says:—"Of the 2,1it),000 immigrants received by Canada during the last eleven yeaiv Western Canada received some 300,000 more immigrants than the eastern section; 'Saskatchewan and Alberta received more than half a million. In sonic parts of the West, the Canadian-born must be out-num-bered two lo one, and without any lixed policy for. educating the newcomers" He says that the dumping process must be stopped. It stands condemned, because its ell'ect is to send a backwash of super/! nun* mechanically and professionally trained population into the older cities. He proceeds to contend ilia! the British Government must be got to aid the work. This should be done both from Imperial motives and from those of .local well-being. The Home Government, however, must not handle the question from the point of view of getting rid of lite, misfits of society., in the Old Country." Authentic information must be

given to prospective oniiyrauls as to tin.; nature of the country and the climate they are going to. Mr SheHiekl puts it thus: -"The prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and the great. timber and mineral lands of British Columbia require the selecting process in a particular sense. Here the rules of the game of life are comparatively hard, and the man or -woman who accepts the rigorous climates, or allows the lure of the new provinces to tempt them, needs real British grit. Though they will .find the West a fierce adversary, it will recognise the real Britisher, and although it means hard work, it means quicker and more generous rewards than anywhere, else in the world. These are a few of the real truths that should be plainly set forth in immigration literature; it would bring out the best,-a;nd it is that class that can. build up a strong Canada." In an article on the same question, also appearing in the lie view of He views, Colonel Lamb, of the Salvation Army's Immigration Department, claims that not'one per cent, of the Army's emigrants to Canada have been disappointed. This is probably entirely accountable to the fact that the Army guarantees'its emigrants work on arrival in the new land. He. says:— "The problem before the Army is plain hut immense. An outlet, must be found for forty thousand widows, nearly all able-bodied, with 120,000 children, in receipt of out-door relief, generally admitted to be quite imiqeauate. Xlierg is aleo a, st'and- ,\ [ vi* 1 ♦ ' 4