Expert Views of Empire Emigration. 



i8i 



I agree that the whole of this question should be 

 tiiken up by the Government of this country and the 

 Governments of the Dominions working in constant 



and close co-operation. It is a question capable of 

 settlement by business people with advantage to the 

 Mother Countrv and the Dominions. 



PREBENDARY G. 1)E M. RUDOLF, tlic Founder of tlic Church of England 



Waifs and Strays Society. 



I have carefully read through the article in the July 

 issue of the Reviews of Review, and certainly agree 

 that there should be some systematised organisation 

 of emigration to the other parts of our great Empire, 

 and the matter is one which the Government might 

 well take up in conjunction with the (Colonial Govern- 

 ments. We however, concern ourselves only with 

 children, and the only Dominion which at present 

 possesses a properly-organised system of child- 

 emigration is Canada. The advantage to the Colonies 

 of a properly-organised system of child-emigration 

 from the .Mother Country has been amply shown by 

 the experience of Canada, where thousands of respect- 

 able citizens owe their present position to its operation. 

 The Mother Country is also a decided gainer, inasmuch 

 as many of the children before they were emigrated 

 were in grave danger of drifting into the condition 

 of " waste material." It has been admitted by an 

 Ottawa journal that there is a smaller proportion of 

 crime among these young immigrants than among 

 Canadian-born children, and this ma\- be safely 

 attributed to the careful training given them before 

 they were emigrated in the English institutions where 

 they had been sheltered. The e.vpense of carrying 

 on this emigration has hitherto been met by private 

 benevolence, except in .so far as Poor Law children 

 are concerned. In their case a grant of £13 per 

 head is allowefl by the Local Government Board to 

 cover cost of outfit, passage, maintenance in 

 distributing home, and inspection by the Canadian 

 Government. The societies emigrating children to 

 Canada have, at their own cost, established and 

 maintiiined these receiving and distributing homes, 

 and bear the expense of inspection. The only con- 

 tribution by the Canadian Government is a per capita 

 grant of S2, which is so trifling that it is not always 

 worth claiming. It is extremely doubtful, however, 

 whether the present system can be appreciably 

 extended without more liberal financial aid from the 

 Home and Colonial Governments. 



CHILD EMICR AllilN NECESSARY FOR EMPIRE. 



The welfare and prosperity of the Empire as a whole 

 demand that soim intelligent and comprehensive 

 system of child-emii.'ration should be .speedily cstali- 

 lishcd by the Governments concerned, if the Mother 

 Country is not gradually to become an asylum for 

 thcdcgener.iteand unfit. On the other hand, whatever 

 system of selection be adopted, due regard must be 

 had to the future welfare of botii the Mother Country 

 and of the Dominions beyond the seas. There are 

 about twenty thousand children in English certified 



Industrial Schools who have been taken from unsatis- 

 factory surroundings to be trained up as respectable 

 citizens. It is undesirable that they should remain 

 in the Mother Country after the completion of their 

 training, since they run the risk of drifting back to 

 the surroundings from which they were originally 

 taken. Why should they not, as a matter of course, 

 be sent to the Colonies, provided that they show no 

 indication of having inherited the physical, mental, 

 or moral disabilities of their parents ? Agam. a large 

 proportion of the thirty thousand orjjhan and deserted 

 children under the charge of the Poor Law Guardians 

 in England and Wales, after being trained, would 

 make excellent emigrants, and it w-ould effectually 

 obviate the risk of their becoming adult paupers in 

 after-life (as some of them do) if they were sent to 

 the Colonies. It would clearly be to the advantage 

 of the State to give grants in aid of the emigration 

 of Industrial School children, and it would be a w-ise 

 policy on the part of the Poor Law Guardians to spend 

 a considerably larger sum than they do at present in 

 the emigration of their pauper children. Thus the 

 Home authorities could advantageously co-operate 

 with the Dominion Governments in extending child- 

 emigration. Lastly, there are a large number of 

 destitute and neglected children rescued by English 

 philanthropic agencies from bad surroundings, w'ho 

 come neither into certified Industrial Schools, nor into 

 the hands of Poor Law Guardians. This class would 

 yield a considerable number of child-emigrants, and 

 it would be to the advantage of the Dominions if 

 substantial "assistance were given to such private 

 agencies for this purpose. 



WHAT THE DOMINIONS ML ST DO. 



As regards the age at which children should be 

 emigrated, it is clear that they should 15e sent to the 

 Dominions as early as possible, so that they may be 

 more thoroughly acclimatised and accustomed to 

 Colonial life. Such a system, however, would not 

 allow time for the tliscovery of any inherited taint ; 

 and the Colonies may, therefore, justly demand that 

 the children shall spend a few years under r-areful 

 training and supervision in England before being 

 emigrated. It h.is been pro\ed by many years' 

 experience of <-hild-emigration to Canada that there 

 is no practical disadvantage to the children in receiving 

 their early training in the Mother Country ; they 

 soon adapt themselves to Colonial life anti conditions, 

 and the proportion of actual failures is less than 

 5 per cent. Private initiative ami enterprise have 

 clearly shown in the case of Canada that child- 



