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Standing Emigration Committee. 



XXII.— STANDING EMIGRATION COMMITTEE. 



The formation of this Committee was the result of a Conference organised by 

 the Royal Colonial Institute and held at the Whitehall Rooms, London, on May 30 

 and 31, 1910. Delegates from forty-niiie emigration societies in the United Kingdom 

 attended the Conference, and the discussions included such subjects as : (1) Divertinfr, 

 as far as possible, the stream of emigration now directed to foreign countries, to our 

 own Dominions ; (2) Emigration generally, from the United Kingdom to the 

 Dominions. 



At a subsequent meeting, the representatives o£ these societies elected ten of their 

 members to serve on the standing committee, and these, with a chairman and five 

 members, were constituted a committee to deal with questions of emigration, and to 

 which other members were afterwards added by the Council of the Institute. 



Executive sub-committees were formed to deal with (1) women, (2) single men and 

 families, (3) children, and their reports formed the subjecb of a letter by the Chairman 

 to the Prime Minister, which was forwarded with the concurrence of the Council. 

 The request was made therein that the subject of emigration should form one of those 

 discussed by the Imperial Conference in 1911, and if this were found impracticable, 

 that it miglit be referred to a subsidiary conference or to a committee of the Con- 

 ference. Eventually, in 1912, the Prime Minister appointed the Dominions Royal 

 Commission, and made the subject of migration within the Empire one of its terms o'i 

 reference, and a deputation from the Standing Emigration Committee appeared before 

 the Commission and gave evidence. It was urged by the deputation that there should 

 be Government control of all emigration agencies and co-operation between the 

 Mother-Country and the Dominions. The large number of orphan, deserted, and 

 neglected children of both sexes, eligible for emigration, now under the control of the 

 guardians, made it most desirable that some settled policy of emigration should bo 

 adopted by the Government in order to ensure a better future for the children. 



A deputation of the Standing Emigration Committee had also been received by a 

 committee of the Local Government Board, which was inquiring into the employment 

 of children in various industries. The difficulties which the guardians met with in 

 emigrating any of the children under their control, especially in the matter of expense, 

 were put before them, and the Local Government Board was urged to explain the 

 position of the guardians under the several Acts, so that they might know what amount 

 could be paid in and about emigration. In consequence, the Council of the Royaf 

 Colonial Institixte received a letter from the Local Government Board with permission 

 to make its contents public, and in which it was stated that there was no definite limi '. 

 to the amount which might be expended in and about the emigration of Poor-Law 

 children, but that nothing might be spent upon their maintenance overseas. A 

 number of Boards of Guardians appear, from returns made by the Committee, to b« 

 in favour of child emigration, and the Com nittec will in future endeavour to influence 

 and assist the guardians in this direction. 



In July, the Committee interviewed Mr. C. L. Andcison, recently Under-Sccretaiy 

 for Agriculture, New South Wales, and discussed suggest iofis in reference to the 

 Dreadnought' Fund, now in the hands of trustees at Sydney, for the purpose of 

 encouraging British immigration. A Sub-committee considered this scheme, and 

 drew up a report for Mr. Anderson embodying the views to be laid before the trustees. 



The Committee was also consulted by Mr. W. H. Hayward, member of the British 

 Columbia Parliament, on the subje^jt of child emigration to that Pi'ovince, and the 



