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The Review of Reviews. 



emigration is beneficial both to the Dominion and 

 the Mother Country, as appears from a recent report 

 by the Canadian Government inspector. It would 

 appear, then, that the time has arrived when all 

 self-governing Dominions should seriously consider 

 how best to arrange for the steady annual flow of 

 young immigrants, so that the necessary population 

 may be provided for the proper development of their 

 resources. It is obvious that the first and foremost 

 step is for each Dominion Government to vote a sub- 

 stantial annual grant for the encouragement of child- 

 emigration. This grant could either be used to 

 subsidise existing private ■ benevolent agencies, thus 

 enabling them to extend their work ; or it might be 

 spent by the authorities themselves in establishing 

 and maintaining institutions for both se.xes in the 

 Dominions where the children from England could be 

 received and trained for Canadian life. 



THE SELECTION OF CHILDREN. 



.\s regards the selection of children lor emigration, 

 due consideration must be given l.wth to the interests 

 of the Dominions and the Mother Country. The lornier 

 have a right to expect that only the physically, morally, 

 and mentally fit children should be selected, so that a 

 healthy and law-abiding population may be built up ; 

 while it would be imprudent also and impolitic to 

 deplete the Mother Country of its best material. But 

 the question of age, as well as the nature and extent 

 of financial assistance, methods of co-operation 

 between the Home and Dominion Governments, and 

 of subsidies to philanthropic agencies, are matters of 

 detail, and can safely be left for future discussion. The 

 important question to be first considered is whether a 

 large and comprehensive scheme of child-emigration 

 to the Dominions beyond the seas is not evidently 

 desirable in the interests of the Empire as a whole. 



THE SELF-HELP EMIGRATION SOCIETY. 



I am sorr)' that my absence from the office for a 

 short holiday has prevented my earlier reply to your 

 favour of the nth inst. I am much obliged to you 

 for calling my attention to the article on page 37 of 

 the current number of the Review of Reviews, with 

 most of which I agree. With reference to child 

 emigration, probably one of the first steps to be 

 taken would be to give the Boards of Guardians power 

 to provide for boarding-out anywhere in the British 

 Empire instead of only in the United Kingdom, as 

 at present. The cost of this would be no more in 

 Canada than here, and the child would, as you have 

 pointed out, be brought up among altogether different 

 surroundings. The suggestion as to the formation of 

 an Imperial Board of Emigration is similar to a 

 recommendation made by Lord Tennyson's Committee 

 some years ago, and more recently by the Emigration 

 Committee of the Royal Colonial Institute, both of 

 which propose that the present Emigrants' Information 

 Office should be strengthened and its powers con- 



siderably enlarged. I am in full accord with both 

 Mr. Hawkes and the writer of the article in the necessity 

 of educating the children in all our schools in the 

 conditions of life and work in the Overseas Dominions. 

 I do not think, however, that emigration will ever be 

 a cure for unemployment, although it may be a 

 palliative. Unfortunately a very large proportion of 

 our unemployed are unemplovable, and we should 

 have no right to saddle the Overseas Dominions with 

 the failures for which we are responsible. Until we 

 find some means of eliminating the unfit from our 

 population we shall be always face to face with 

 unemployment of some sort or other. Among the 

 unemployed, however, there are to be found many 

 thousands, sober, honest and hard-working, who from 

 the stress of competition cannot make headway here, 

 but in Canada find the wav open to competence, . 

 particularly if able and willing to work on the lan(5. 

 It is such whom this Society endeavours to help b\ 

 the methods detailed in the report I enclose. 



THE EAST END EMIGRATION FUND. 



Referring tt) your letter of the nth inst., with 

 which you were kind enough to .send me a copy of 

 the July number of the Review' of Reviews, my 

 Committee have requested me to say that they quite 

 agree with the points raised in the article on " The 

 Life-Blood of the Empire." They are quite of opinion 

 that it would be of great mutual advantage if the 

 Governments of the 0\'er.seas Dominions could see 

 their way to much extended co-operation with volun- 

 tary emigration agencies, and that it would be a great 

 advantage if the Overseas Dominions would accept 

 the full responsibility with regard to the reception 

 and distribution of those sent over. This especially 

 applies to .some of the Australasian States, where the 

 dilliculty of housing on arrival has undoubtedly 

 hampered emigration work. We also think that, 



having regard to the acknowledged success of child 

 emigration in Canada, it might well encourage other 

 Overseas Dominions to take some steps, whether by 

 help in the establishment nl farm schools or homes, or 

 by the selection of special boarding-out homes under 

 adequate Government inspection, to promote child 

 emigration, both male and female. 



Generally, my Committee feel that emigration to 

 bur Overseas Dominions has now reached .so great an 

 importance, both as an outlet for our people in England 

 and as a means of development of the vast unpopulated 

 areas in these Dominions, that some central office 

 might be established which should have representatives 

 of the home and Dominion Go^■ernmcnts, and of the 

 \arious agencies, both State and voluntary, for pro- 

 moting emigration, and they are entirely in accord 



