70 Emigration and its Causes 



In the modern sense of the word emigration means 

 the departure of persons from a thickly-populated 

 country to settle in one with an abundance of uncul- 

 tivated land. It is opposed to colonisation which 

 meant to make the first settlement in a new land, such 

 as was done in Tudor and Stuart times. Modern 

 emigration really began in 1815 when 2081 people left 

 our shores to become citizens in other lands. Now we 

 know in recent years the number of emigrants has 

 amounted to hundreds of thousands and there seems 

 every probability that this number will grow as our 

 population increases. It will be well to note in passing 

 that in the country which people leave they are called 

 emigrants or wanderers out; in the country in which 

 they settle they are called immigrants. 



Now perhaps it will be interesting to enquire why 

 people leave our country, in other words, why should 

 this movement of people take place. There have been 

 periods when some of our people have been discon- 

 tented owing to religious troubles and then Holland or 

 America offered them a new home. Social and political 

 disturbances caused the Irish to emigrate in large 

 numbers to the United States and elsewhere. The 

 gold discoveries in Australia, California, and Klondyke 

 caused the emigration of thousands of people who 

 went to those countries in the pursuit of wealth. The 

 development of the resources of Canada and the 

 United States was responsible, and is still, for the loss 

 of hundreds of thousands of our people who have gone 

 to those countries where the population is not so dense, 

 and where the chance of getting profitable employment 

 is greater than in the British Isles. Besides these 

 larger causes of so many leaving the country there 



