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for twelve months in the State. The Superintendent, who would, I have no doubt, do his best unofficially to help anyone coming out from the old country, told me that not one immigrant in a month applied to him.
Victoria has also no special machinery for dealing with immigrants. Mr. Swinburne, however, would, I am sure, give, through his Department, assistance to anyone applying. Immigration from England is insignificant.
In New South Wales all business connected with immigration is conducted by the Intelligence Department, a new office at Sydney, of which Mr. H. C. L. Anderson is the head. New instructions were published in December, providing for the assisted immigration of persons of " the classes skilled in any form of rural industry, domestic servants, and any others who can satisfy the Agent-General that they will make suitable settlers, together with the wives and families of the same, if any," and no male immigrant will be eligible for assistance unless he has £10 on landing. I sent a copy of these Regulations, when issued, to the Office. The Intelligence Department deals with all immigrants sent out by the Agent-General. To these I will refer later.
In Queensland the officers of the Government Immigration Agent, Mr. Brenan, meef steamers and assist nominated and other immigrants. There is a shelter at Brisbane where immigrants can get lodging free, and they are given railway passes to the places where they can get work. There is no other depôt in Queensland, but Mr. Brenan has agents in the chief centres, who would, as a matter of fact, assist an immigrant to get work. This system is one which has grown up, and does not appear to be provided for by Regulation. The Queensland Government does more In New for the immigrant on his arrival than other Australian Governments. South Wales an immigrant who has taken up land within a month of his arrival gets a reduction of half his railway fares and freights, while the other States, except Western Australia, appear to give no railway facilities.
In Tasmania no special machinery exists for receiving emigrants.
I referred above, in speaking of New South Wales, to the emigrants sent out by the Agent-General. These men it appears were in several cases offered land This system in London, and came out having chosen their land already. appears to me to be quite wrong. No sensible man in England would think of taking a farm in his own country without seeing it, and the chances of his being deceived as to land in another country must be even greater. Indeed, I doubt whether it is possible for an English farmer to understand anything of the conditions which obtain in Australia. As the head of one of the agricultural colleges said to me, every operation is conducted from the opposite point of view. In England we cultivate to get rid of the superfluous moisture of the soil, and in Australia the farmer cultivates in order to conserve the moisture. Even, therefore, if the Agent-General and the officials explain matters to the best of their ability-and they may not have the practical farming experience which would be useful to a farmer--the emigrant on finding matters different from what he expected is likely to regard himself as deceived. As a matter of fact, some difficulty arose with some of the men who had come out while I was in Sydney. Mr. Anderson was, however, determined that they should not come to grief, and he has, I am sure, given them every assistance. He wrote to me on 12th February (that is just when I was leaving) saying that he had satis- factorily placed all the immigrants that had arrived up to date. The system is none the less a dangerous one, and it is apparently contemplated to try it in Queensland, for by a Land Act passed recently the Governor in Council is empowered to set apart lands for selection in Great Britain; maps and information being exhibited at the office of the Agent-General. The Committee will remember that the Agents-General in their report of 10 November made a recommendation in this sense. In speaking to Mr. Anderson at Sydney, and also to Dr. Arthur and to Mr. Bell, the Minister who, I believe, was responsible for these clauses in the Queensland Bill, I pointed out what appear to me to be the objections to this policy. Whether what I said will have any effect I do not know, but it has always been the policy of this office to discourage men from taking up land before they know the country, e.g., in our Queensland handbook (p. 28): "Men with capital should be most careful not to invest in land until they have learned the capabilities and the methods of the country." Even if the land is given on very easy terms, and the farm may be given up after
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a short period, this still remains in my opinion true, for it is easy to lose capital if the farming itself is unsuccessful, and I think that the Committee should continue to give this advice clearly both in their publications and answers to correspondents. The attitude of Australians generally, as far as can judge, towards immigra tion is favourable, that is to say, that it is rare to meet anyone who will tell you that he is opposed to immigration. On the contrary, the smallness of the present popula- tion and its slow rate of increase compared with the enormous extent of territory, is generally accepted as showing that immigration is required, while many people whose attention has been drawn to the East by the recent war, will ask whether a handful of white men can hope to hold a continent indefinitely if the teeming populations of Asia seek to obtain admission. But agreement as to the need of immigration generally does not go beyond acceptance of the abstract principle and qualifications as to the class of immigrant follow until it is clear that the only immigration which all are prepared to welcome is that of the man with capital. The Australian attitude, indeed, is a great contrast to that of the Canadians, who are prepared to take any man who is ready to work. I was told almost unanimously in Australia that immi- grants (except female domestic servants) were not wanted in the towns, and except one ex-Minister in Queensland, hardly anyone that I met was prepared to take up "General" Booth's Scheme. Whether, had the ex-Minister been in office, his col- leagues would have let him do so I much doubt. Even with regard to the agri- cultural labourer there was division of opinion, but if, as many said to me, only the good agricultural labourer is wanted, the man who can "graft" until he has gradu- ally, while working for others, cleared a bit of land for himself, the question is more or less academic, for such a man is certain of good employment at home. This dis- trust of immigration is often ascribed to the selfish anxiety of the Labour Party lest the rate of wages should be reduced by competition. The high rate of wages which obtains largely owing to legislation and the action of Governments undoubtedly in itself operates to restrict immigration, for it tends to make it difficult to employ labour. Most Australian farming, especially dairy farming, is for this reason done with very little outside labour. It tends, too, to cripple industries unless they are protected by a high tariff. But the attitude of the Labour Party is not so unreason- able as it is often represented to be in England. Putting aside the question whether the present prosperity of the mass of the people, who in Australia are undoubtedly better off than in England, or the economic progress of the country with the advan- tages which follow in its train is the better end, a point on which opinions may fairly differ, there is a real land difficulty in Australia. In this connexion I may again quote Mr. Deakin's speech on 10th November:—
I say that our lands must be thrown open before we can hope to encourage any considerable inmigration to this country. We need it, but we are not getting it. The necessity for taking action in this direction should have been brought home to the people of Australia most clearly and irresistibly by the offers recently received from the old country of a large number of desirable settlers, to which vague replies were sent, and those only from certain parts of Australia. We ought to have been able to reply: "There are no landless people in this country who desire to make their homes upon the soil, and there are We had to admit that some of boundless lands for others who desire to settle upon them."
our own people were vainly seeking land, and that we had no such efficient organization as exists in Canals, whereby the settler is enabled to at once proceel to the place where his choice of land is already marked out for him, and practically establish his home without delay. Hardly any of our States offer such openings for suitable immigrants coming here. Mr. HIGGINS.-The Dominion Government has the control of the land in Canada. Mr. DEAKIN. Yes, that makes ar enormous difference. When I am asked why the Commonwealth Government does not submit a proposal to foster immigration, I reply that whilst this Parliament is in favour of such a policy, we feel hat it can be carried out only when the people who come here can be settled upon the land of which we have vast areas idle, or provided with employment at their own trades and callings by the encouragement Until we are of the manufactures and the development of the resources of the country. able to offer iminigrants employment either in the cities or in the country, what inducement can we give them to come here?
Mr. HCTCHISON.-We want a gooil grailuated land tax.
Mr. DEACON.-I desire to avoid controversial issues, but contend that if we introduce immigrants at random, and merely throw them on the labour market, or upon the land- knowing, as we do, that in the latter case they will probably be kept waiting for six or twelve months, or even longer, before suitable holdings can be allotted to them-we shall be guilty not only of cruelty to the immigrants, but of conduct which must result injuriously to Australia as a whole. What we need to do is to make opportunities for settlers. Then we shall attract a large proportion of enterprising people, wliose operation will enable us to still further augment our numbers,
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