A PARADOX OF EMIGRATION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XV, 11 April 1896, Page 416

A PARADOX OF EMIGRATION.

The publication of articles on the subject of European immigration into the republic of Venezuela has called attentiou again to one of the curiosities of emigration which has never been clearly explained and remains, therefore, something of an enigma. It is well known that the foreign immigrants in this country irom the northern nations of Europe—Great Britain, Germany, Russia and Scandinavia—have, like the early colonists from the same countries, been pretty evenly divided between the two sexes. The emigration from the southern countries of Flurope, on the contrary—Spain,ltaly, Greece and Portugal—has been chiefly male, and to this fact, perhaps, more than to any other is due the intermarriage of emigrants and natives in South and Central America, particularly in the United States and Canada. The emigration from Ireland, for instance, for many years, has been more largely made up of female than of male emigrants ; while from Italy, on the other hand, the proportion for a period of more than twenty years is : Male, 75; female, 25. The total number of emigrants to the United States from 1845, the first year of large emigration, to 1895 (a period covering half a century) was in excess of 16,000,000, and more than 40 per cent was female, whereas the large Spanish and Italian emigration to South America has been almost exclusively male. As this matter is not one of early occurrence, but continues at present (the census figures resuming their old dimensions since the improvement of the times), it might be supposed that the number of women in those European countries from which there is and has been practically no female emigration would be much larger than in those countries which have suffered a steady diminution through the emigration of persons of both sexes. But the contrary of this is shown by the figures of the Almanach de Gotha. In Italy, from which there is very little female emigration, the number of female inhabitants is actually less than the male inhabitants—in the ratio of 99 to too. In Greece the ratio is 90 to 100. In Roumania it is 93 to too. On the other hand, in Great Britain, from which the emigration of women has been continuous, they outnumber the men in the proportion of 104 to 100. In all the other countries of Europe from which there is and has been a large female emigration a majority of the inhabitants are women. In Russia the proportion is 102 women to 100 men, in Germany 104 women to 100 men, in Sweden 106 women to 100 men, in Switzerland 104 women to 100 men, and in Denmark and Austria 103 women to 100 men. In France and Belgium the equality of proportion between the sexes is very evenly preserved. Thus in France there are 1004 women to 1000 men, and in Belgium the difference is smaller, there being 1001 women to 1000 men. A still more peculiar manifestation of the same paradox, if it may be so considered, is found in the official reports recently published in England of the emigration from that country during the last quarter of a century. In 1860 48 Ji per cent, of the population of Great Britain was male and 51 '/z per cent was female. Between iB6O and 1870 the female emigration was the larger, yet by the census of 1871 the female population increased the more rapidly. From 1870 to 1880 the male emigration was the larger, but the female population increased the more rapidly.

Johnnie — 1 I guess you could scratch a match now all right; couldn't you, Miss May ?’

Aunt Maria When John conits to-night he certainly should take the hint. It won't be my fault, sure pop.

Romantic Daughter—* Mamma, I have made up my mind. I cannot marry Mr Swartz! I don't care if he is rich ; I’m sure I’d have to look at him as often as at his money !’ Mercenary Parent—‘ You would have to do nothing of the sort ; aud as for his face, I feel sure it would grow on you.’ Romantic Daughter—‘ “ Grow on me !' Heaven forbid !”

HE — ‘What do you think of Miss Newriches' fiancee, Count Sawdoflf?’ She —‘Well, I think she might have got more for her money.’

Papa (unloading tree) —' Ah ! here’s something nice for Uncle Frederick !' UNCLE Frederick (recently betrothed) — * Ha-ha-ha ; very g-good joke, indeed Little Barnabas—’l gave it to you, Uncle Fred ; mamma said last night that you must be in your second childhood to marry Miss Burbeck, an’ I thought you might like something to play with.’