WAIRARAPA DAILY TIMES [Established Third of a Century.] THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1914. IMMIGRATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11937, 26 March 1914, Page 4

WAIRARAPA DAILY TIMES [Established Third of a Century.] THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1914. IMMIGRATION.

Of late we have heard much about emigration from the United Kingdom to other parts of the Empire-, and farmers at "Home have raised the cry that ail able-bodied labourers are leaving the country, but ligures do not bear out their contention! The ligures relating to emigration from the Old Country to the oversea Dominions during the first two months of the present year show a marked shrinkage as compared with those of the corresponding months <.vf last year. News of this kind is in keeping with that conveyed in a recent cablegram reporting that the difficulty of obtaining suitable immigrants for the dominions was shown by a fallingoff of 68 per cent in the bookings of the Canadian .Immigration Department. The decrease in the number of those desirous of leaving the United Kingdom for some other part of the Empire would seem to be general so far as the dominions are concerned, even if it be rather more accentuated in the case of Canada than in the other instances. It is likely enough, that the decrease in emigration which has been noticed in Great Britain would be found to have its parallel iv the emigration tendency on the Continent, although no figures are availablcc to confirm that hypothesis. The success of Canada of late years in attracting new population has been phenomena], says the Otago Daily Times, and if there be now a falling off in the case of that great dominion with all its activity and success in inducing immigration, the advantages it enjoys in, proximity to the countries of surplus population, and its unbounded prosperity, the other dominions can hardly expect to escape sharing the result of whatever influence may have been at work to restrict the flow from the British Isles It does not follow that the shrinkage in emigration has much significance, or that it means that over the

whole of the present year tho tide of emigration will set less strongly than usual. To-day the oversea portions of tho British Empire are very desirous of securing more population, and the dominions are competing to secure desirable immigrants from the Mother Country. The exportation of population from the United Kingdom, we are reminded, has become a most highly organised industry. But, while the activity of the numerous emigration agencies has been viewed with marked approval when they were at one and the same time removing the surplus inhabitants of a settled country and assisttng in the settlement of sparsely-popu-lated parts of the Empire, we frequently nowadays hear the cry that Great Britain, is too lavish in her export of people, and that her population cannot stand the heavy drain which is being made upon it. The last available report of the Board of Trade, which has lately adopted a more accurate system of enumeration, dealing with the emigration for 3 912 ,states: "The excess - f emigration over immigration of British subjects,-according to the new returns, was 330,454, while according to the method of estimating the volume of emigration which alone has been available hitherto, the number of .emigrants from the United Kingdom iv the twelve mouths ending March, 1913, would be

273,830.'' Tiie satisfactory feature about the movement of British emigration which must appeal both to the dominions and the Mother Country, is the fact that latterly the British Empire, as compared with foreign countries, has profited to an increasing extent. The proportion of the emigration from the Mother Country to the oversea dominions grew from 53. per cent, in 1000 to S2 per cent, in 1012. It is reinsuring to know that the great proportion of the people who leave the United Kingdom are not going to the United States or to other foreign countries, there to lose their nationality, but are leaving to establish new homes in other parts of the Empire which will benefit accordingly. The need which Australia and' Mew Zealand have of suitable immigrants for their development; and progross impresses all who visit their shores and study their resources, and the fact that among, all the Dominions they are easily the most British, in the sense that they receive few immigrants from foreign countries, should increase the validity of their claim to a. fair share of the emigrants who leave tho Old Country for fresh fields and pastures new.