i8o 



The Review of Reviews. 



Coast of Tasmania, where large mining enterprises arc 

 carried on. Pcrsonalh', I have come to the conihision 

 that we want something hke a business arrangement, 

 b)' which provision would be made in the Overseas 

 Dominions for the settlement of the people who may 

 be encouraged to go out there to settle, on the land. 

 We do not want to land a lot of people into each 

 city to go wandering about and become useless citizens ; 

 we want to have provision made for them to take up 

 land work as soon as they arrive. We have plenty of 

 land, even in Tasmania, to support a very largely 

 increased population. There could be four or five 

 times the mnnbcr we have already there. I am hopeful 

 that within the next few months the Government wiW 

 adopt a land settlement policy, so that we might get 

 the whole of our available land settled at once, instead 

 of waiting for years, as we have to do under the policy 

 — or, rather, want of policy — that has obtained in the 

 past. I purpose going out to Tasmania in November 

 with a view to inducing the Government to take up a 

 land settlement scheme, so that the people in this 

 country desirous of settling on the land in the Overseas 

 Dominions will know that, so far as our State is 

 concerned, the land is immediately available, and 

 also know the assistance they may expect from the 

 Government through their experts, who are employed 

 by the Agricultural Department to advise settlers, 

 and generallv to bring back with me all the information 

 they could desire to enable them to judge of the future 

 prospects in that State. I believe something similar 

 has already been done by Victoria, in what is known 

 as their irrigation areas ; but 1 believe that this policy 

 could be extended to such an extent in Australia alone 

 as to make full provision for all the desirable settlers 

 that could be obtained from the Mother Country at 

 the present time. 



When you come to consider what might be done on 

 this side, it would appear that whenever you have a 

 large surplus population you must have a considerable 

 number of people who, through no fault of their own, 

 are thrown on the rates, and have to be supported by 

 their more fortunate brothers who have employment. 

 It appears to me that it ought not to be difl'icult for 

 those on whom the responsibility falls of making this 

 provision to come to some business arrangement with 

 the Governments of the Dominions or States, by which, 

 at any rate, they would be relieved of a considerable 

 proportion of their present expenditure. That is to say, 

 that the whole cost of getting these new settlers ought 

 not to fall upon the Colcjnial (Governments, but might 

 well be shared by the bodies now practically responsible 

 for their full keep. I( this were done the position of 

 the people would be belter, and the lost to the rate- 

 payers considerably reduced. 



With reference to your article in regard to child 

 emigration, I think a great deal might be done to 

 relieve the position here, and at the same time educate 

 and develop colonists, who would probably prove to 

 be of greater value than the majority of those now 

 secured under tlie more expensive methods. Where 



these children have no relatives, I think the earlier 

 the}- emigrate the better for themselves and for the 

 Dominions; but where the children have parents who 

 do not wish to lose them at so early an age, much 

 might be done to educate them for emigration in the 

 elementary schools. 



A very excellent scheme is being carried out in 

 Western Australia, having originated with one of the 

 Rhodes scholars at Oxford. They have formed an 

 Emigration Society, and have obtained from the 

 West Australian Government land for carrying out 

 their experiment. The children will be taken on to 

 farms and there educated as farmers' sons would be 

 educated ; in that way they would grow up in the 

 right environment, and would secure for that State 

 a large number of land workers. An extension of 

 this scheme might be made to include girls, for whom 

 no provision is made ; in the same way they would 

 be educated under Colonial conditions, and would be 

 ready to take up positions on the various farms when 

 old enough to be allowed to work on their own respon- 

 sibility. These girls should be trained not only for 

 farm work, but for domestic work, and the farm home 

 would become a real home for these boys and girls, 

 to which they could return for holidays, or when the}' 

 were out of employment. It is better for the children 

 to be altogether educated in the country where they 

 will spend their future, if they have no parents to 

 whom they can look for help. But there would still 

 be a ver}' large class who could be educated in this 

 country on a farm school until perhaps they were 

 thirteen or fourteen, when they could be sent abroad 

 to complete their education at a similar,farm school 

 in one of the Dominions. Personally. I think that 

 in the end they would probably get better labour by 

 taking the children and educating them under local 

 conditions than by sending out adults. For I think 

 few of us who have been in both countries have any 

 doubt as to the superiority of the Colonial labourer. 



(At the present time a very large number of 

 untrained young fellows who come to the Colonies 

 have a difficulty at first in obtaining employment . 

 owing to want of training and experience, and these 

 men have a very detrimental elTect on the Colonial 

 labourer, tending to bring him down to their level.) 



In those cases where the ratepayers are being 

 relieved they should not hesitate to expend a portion 

 of that money in giving these children a large outlook 

 for their future. Of course, one of the things the 

 Colonies have to be most particular about (this ha 

 been called to one's mind by the recent Eugenics 

 Congress that has been held in London) is th<^ type 

 of child that is sent out. In some of these institutions, 

 I understand, a very large proportion of the children 

 would be considered undesirable, not owing to their 

 vices, but because of their mental deficiencies. It 

 would have to be understood that under any scheme 

 that might be inaugurated there would have to be a 

 rigid examination and inspection, and only the desir- 

 ables could possibly hope to be selected. 



