DEPOPULATION OF RURAL ENGLAND sgt 



the undesirables, the "riff-raff," the weak and incom- 

 petent. If any of these are sent they will be promptly 

 rejected and sent back.^ The number of emigrants 

 sent back by the United States in 1904 was: British 

 and Irish, 366; foreigners, 1198; total, 1566. The 

 number rejected by the Colonial authorities in the 

 same year was: British and Irish, 39; foreigners, 197; 

 total, 236. Nearly all these emigrants were rejected 

 for reasons stated under two headings — "Disease " and 

 "Paupers or likely to become a public charge."^ It is 

 only the strong, the physically sound, the " fit and care- 

 fully selected " — in other words, those who constitute 

 the real strength of the nation — who are eligible. 



The regulations which have been gazetted in New 

 South Wales with regard to immigration assisted by 

 the Government of that colony are that immigrants 

 must be in sound mental and bodily health and of 

 good moral character, and must not be over fifty years 

 of age. They must be selected mainly from the classes 

 skilled in rural industry, and each individual must 

 possess at least ;!^io on landing at Sydney. 



We spend immense sums of money in educating, 

 training, and otherwise caring for the children of our 

 rural population; and when they arrive at manhood or 

 womanhood we are asked to spend further large sum.s 

 in order to get rid of them. 



No doubt the capitalist classes are exporting their 

 money for the development of undertakings in other 

 countries ; but that is a secondary matter, though, for 

 obvious reasons, an important one. Money so ex- 

 ported can, as a rule, be got back again, often increased 



^ "Emigration and Immigration Reports," Board of Trade, 1905, 

 No. 137. The number of British and Irish male agricultural labourers 

 (excluding women, and children under age) who emigrated in 1904 was 

 21,028, of whom 10,778 went to the United States. 



