The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1614. IMMIGRATION.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14341, 10 July 1914, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1614. IMMIGRATION.

Tun policy of Asiatic cxcludon, to which we referred yesterday, naturally suggests the necessity for every country which adopts such a policy, of filling its empty spaces with a white population of the best type, as well for its own development as for purposes of defence against any attempt to enforce a coloured influx upon it. In this connection we in New Zealand are vitally inters ted in what Australia, our nearest neighbour, is doing in the way of inducing white settlers to come to her shores. So far the problem of filling Australia's “empty North” still awaits solution. The tide of immigration mostly seta towards/ the Eastern and Western Stales cf the Commonweal.!!. But, at (ho same time, it must be remembered that additional settlers in such States as Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, mean mere people to whom the North may appeal, and in the absence of direct immigration to the Northern Territory from oversea, this indirect way of immigration from the bldcr States will not improbably have some effect, if a slow one, on the future population of the Territory. There ; b, therefore, some interest, even for New Zealand, in the report of the Director of Immigration to Victoria, and New South Wales, the more especially ns some of tho considerations involved arc our experience also. Though the Director consider:-‘. that, the coming year is likely to he a record one for Australian immigration, ho notes that the evidence increasingly points to a diminution in the emigration from Groat Britain of the class Australia, like New Zealand, is most in want of, viz., agriculturists and agiieultural labourers. For years emigration lia.o heavily drained them from the Old Country to new ones where land is readily available on easy terms, and now, for that and other reasons, Die supply is shrinking. Even Canada, where they ahjclutcly give land away, is feeling the effect, for last March it was reported that Die Dominion’s bookings for so much of Dio year as had elapsed were liß per cent below those for the same period of the preceding year. It may be, however, that arrangements have been made which will put Australia in a eompara-

lively bettor position, not with*binding a. falling-off in the 1 , aggregate British outflow; and that there is room for Dim may be seen in the fact that in 1912 a total of 303,009 .persons left the United Kingdom for the .United States and Canada. aud only about 96,000 for Australasia.

A day or two ago, in the New Zealand Parliament, one ijicmber advocated Dio encouragement of immigration from Sweden, Denmark, pud other North European countries. The shrinking in British emigration, as nutjd in the report quoted above, may .mate it necessary for us to comidor whether this suggestion should not bo given some practical effect. While it has always, ami iiglitly, been considered that British people arc most desirable for British countries, there are, without a doubt, other couitries upon whom we could draw' with advantage, as well on account of their fine'qualities as settler*-, as ou account pf the desirability of judicious racial fusion. .Such an element in ou“ population has, in fact, been a proved success, if iu a small way, in New Zealand, as shown by the original Scandinavian settlements ii\ the Nomwood ami Danncvirke districts.' iTlie matter has already received tho attention of the Australian immigration ; authorities, who have sent officials to the Continent, and these report that there aic good prospects of obtaining agriculturists in Holland, Denmark, and Finland, though it is added that in Sweden and Norway the Governments strongly opposed the emigration canvas* —an opposition, which will be pretty widely encountered, for several of the European

Governments are mak'ng resolute efforts to stem the outward title. Australasia's difficulty if that it; caniot advertise Itself in th.otc countries to the same extent as it can in Groat Britain, while there is ever present among them the glowing tradition of the United States, supplemented now by the charms of the newer American countries. Canada retains a commanding attractiveness for Britishers, while the Latins. ino.tly go to South America, except that during (he year ended with last Juno the United State* received 231,000 Southern Italians. It is interesting to learn that in that year more Slavs entered the United State.* than in any previous year, their total being 389,000, and that under test for eligibili'y they were classed very high. Tlnw the campaign for European immigrants is still all before us, and we are handicapped in it by distance and unfa.miliarity. Another difficulty is the one of providing would-bp settlers with land. Many of our own people who desire to go on the land arc finding the amount of capital required for such a purpose far beyond them, and under the Massey Government there is certainly little chance for the imal! capitalist, more especially as no attempt whatever is made to enable the Advances Department to give tlie same liberal terms and assistance a* is given, for instance, in West Australia. The newcomer can get land for nothing in Canada, and on practically the name good terms in Argentina, though there the tendency is to stipulate that lie shall stock it. In New Zealand the trouble, too frequently, is to get land on any terms at all. We must begin at this end, therefore. There is not much hope of success in competition with countries where land is ready for the new ncttlcr and which are nearer to Ilia homo country, while we ask him to come all this way and lake his chance of finding a place to settle. New Zealand ha* opportunities enough for the agricultural labourer, but it is far from making adequate provision to attract the small farmer. <