542 



The Review of Reviews. 



in its future citizens. Then again, the regula- 

 tions allow Guardians to contribute a sum up to 

 ;^i3 to an emigration society willing to under- 

 take the complete after-care of the child. This 

 is to cover the cost of outfit, passage, and first 

 inspection ; but as the law is at present inter- 

 preted nothing may be contributed for mainten- 

 ance out of the United Kingdom. Such a 

 regulation entirely prevents a society from 

 taking the child at the most eligible age, which 

 is considered by those who have the greatest 

 experience to be seven ; for no society depending 

 for its existence financially on voluntary sub- 

 scriptions can receive and maintain any large 

 number of children until they are able to support 

 themselves in six or seven years' time. A few hun- 

 dreds are being received into farm homes or farm 

 schools, or boarded out, but what substantial 

 advantage is that to Boards of Guardians who 

 require an outlet for many thousands yearly? 

 Meanwhile the child from the age of seven to 

 twelve or thirteen is a burden upon the rate- 

 payer, who when he pays his half-yearly rate for 

 " Education " and " Higher Education " has 

 not even the satisfaction of knowing that the 

 future of the children is assured by this expendi- 

 ture, but, on the contrary, realises that he is 

 party to a system which educates a State child 

 well without having devised any further scheme 

 for its after-care, or providing against this 

 large outlay being wasted. Philanthropic 

 societies step in and do much towards helping 

 the children, but the general State-aided scheme 

 for the young, who have no belongings in a 

 position to launch them into the world, stops 

 dead short at the most critical time in their lives. 

 It is here that the co-operation of the Home and 

 Dominion authorities is most needed, and it 

 could find expression most suitably through the 

 Imperial Board of Emigration which has been 

 advocated for the United Kingdom, and through 

 Central Boards formed in each Dominion. The 

 actual work of emigration should not be under- 

 taken by the Governments themselves, but the 

 services of approved emigration agencies should 

 be made use of here, and of local committees in 

 the districts to which the children go. In the 

 case of Canada a scheme has already been pre- 

 sented to the Government to extend in special 

 instances the use of public credit to the actual 

 processes of settlement, and several provinces 

 have committed themselves by legislation to 

 such a policy. If Guardians on this side were 

 made aware that they could spend a sum which 

 bore some relation to the age of the child, they 

 could, with the co-operation of the emigration 

 societies, send a much larger number there than 

 at present, to the great advantage of the 

 children themselves, of the ratepayer, and of the 

 Empire at large. A steady stream of immi- 



grants could be looked for by the overseas 

 Dominions, and they could rely upon a con- 

 tinuity of policy which is now lacking. Fresh 

 legislation appears not to be necessary for the 

 purpose ; the Acts in force at present are under- 

 stood to be quite sufficient if rightly interpreted. 



To this question of child emigration, however, 

 there are two sides : the Imperial and the 

 National. There are those who urge that after 

 the splendid rally which the Dominions made 

 round the Mother Country in the South African 

 War there is no loss whatever to this country, 

 in the way of an efficient citizen, when a child 

 migrates to one of our Dominions. That, on 

 the contrary, it is incumbent upon us to secure 

 that the lands oversea should be filled up with 

 British and not cosmopolitan stock. 



On the other hand, there are many who hold 

 that the departure of any large number of 

 children of both sexes from this country would 

 be felt in every household, and would seriously 

 injure many of the industries in which young 

 people are employed. There are also many 

 Guardians who have a genuine fondness for the 

 children under their care, and hesitate to allow 

 them to go so far afield and to homes about 

 which they know nothing. 



If, however, what may be described as the 

 national view is examined it is found to be based 

 upon incomplete information. Those who have 

 gone most carefully into the matter assure us 

 that from four to seven thousand children come 

 into the hands of the Guardians annually, as 

 being orphans or deserted or removed from 

 vicious surroundings, for whom there is no out- 

 look whatever in this country. The future 

 before them is to drift into the slums and 

 eventually to swell the numbers of the unem- 

 ployables. Yet they go on to assert that their 

 transfer to our Dominions has in the past made 

 such children highly respectable citizens, and 

 they point to the very satisfactory reports re- 

 ceived from all the authorities in confirmation of 

 this. It is also said that those Guardians who 

 fear to let their children go so far away would 

 quickly change their minds if thev onlv knew 

 how well the children are looked after' in the 

 new British homes to which they go, or in such 

 homes as are provided under Mrs. Close's Farm 

 Home scheme and the companion svstem of Farm 

 Schools, adopted by the Child Emigration Society. 



Both these views deserve a consideration 

 which they do not get from some of the uncon- 

 trolled emigration agencies, which are so active 

 at the present time, and they emphasise the 

 necessity for having in this country a central 

 authority which shall, in co-operation with the 

 Dominions, formulate a statesmanlike policy for 

 the migration of our children within the Empire 

 according to its needs. 



