第64章 NEW BRITAIN--THE COLONY OVER-SEA.(3)

All the unmarried will have earned something on the City and Farm Colonies,which will go towards meeting their passage money.In the course of time relatives,who are comfortably settled in the Colony,will save money,and assist their kindred in getting out to them.

We have the examples before our eyes in Australia and the United States of how those countries have in this form absorbed from Europe millions of poor struggling people.

All Colonists and emigrants generally will bind themselves in a legal instrument to repay all monies,expenses of passage,outfit,or otherwise,which would in turn be utilised in sending out further contingents.

On the plan named,if prudently carried out,and generously assisted,the transfer of the entire surplus population of this country is not only possible,but would,we think,in process of time,be effected with enormous advantage to the people themselves,to this country,and the country of their adoption.The history of Australia and the United States evidences this.It is quite true the first settlers in the latter were people superior in every way for such an enterprise to the bulk of those we propose to send out.But it is equally true that large numbers of the most ignorant and vicious of our European populations have been pouring into that country ever since without affecting its prosperity,and this Colony Over-Sea would have the immense advantage at the outset which would come from a government and discipline carefully adapted to its peculiar circumstances,and rigidly enforced in every particular.

I would guard against misconception in relation to this Colony Over-Sea by pointing out that all my proposals here are necessarily tentative and experimental.There is no intention on my part to stick to any of these suggestions if,on maturer consideration and consultation with practical men,they can be improved upon.Mr.Arnold White,who has already conducted two parties of Colonists to South Africa,is one of the few men in this country who has had practical experience of the actual difficulties of colonisation.I have,through a mutual friend,had the advantage of comparing notes with him very fully,and I venture to believe that there is nothing in this Scheme that is not in harmony with the result of his experience.In a couple of months this book will be read all over the world.It will bring me a plentiful crop of suggestions,and,I hope,offers of service from many valuable and experienced Colonists in every country.In the due order of things the Colony Over-Sea is the last to be started.Long before our first batch of Colonists is ready to cross the ocean I shall be in a position to correct and revise the proposals of this chapter by the best wisdom and matured experience of the practical men of every Colony in the Empire.

SECTION 2.--UNIVERSAL EMIGRATION.

We have in our remarks on the Over-Sea Colony referred to the general concensus of opinion on the part of those who have studied the Social Question as to Emigration being the only remedy for the overcrowded population of this country,at the same time showing some of the difficulties which lie in the way of the adoption of the remedy;the dislike of the people to so great a change as is involved in going from one country to another;the cost of their transfer,and their general unfitness for an emigrant's life.These difficulties,as I think we have seen,are fully met by the Over-Sea Colony Scheme.But,apart from those who,driven by their abject poverty,will avail themselves of our Scheme,there are multitudes of people all over the country who would be likely to emigrate could they be assisted in so doing.

Those we propose to help in the following manner:--1.By opening a Bureau in London,and appointing Officers whose business it will be to acquire every kind of information as to suitable countries,their adaptation to,and the openings they present for different trades and callings,the possibility of obtaining land and employment,the rates of remuneration,and the like.These enquiries will include the cost of passage-money,railway fares,outfit,together with every kind of information required by an emigrant.

2.From this Bureau any one may obtain all necessary information.

3.Special terms will be arranged with steamships,railway companies,and land agents,of which emigrants using the Bureau will have the advantage.

4.Introductions will be supplied,as far as possible,to agents and friends in the localities to which the emigrant may be proceeding.

5.Intending emigrants,desirous of saving money,can deposit it through this Bureau in the Army Bank for that purpose.

6.It is expected that government contractors and other employers of labour requiring Colonists of reliable character will apply to this Bureau for such,offering favourable terms with respect to passage-money,employment,and other advantages.

7.No emigrant will be sent out in response to any application from abroad where the emigrant's expenses are defrayed,without references as to character,industry,and fitness.

This Bureau,we think,will be especially useful to women and young girls.There must be a large number of such in this country living in semi-starvation,anyway,with very poor prospects,who would be very welcome abroad,the expense of whose transfer governments,and masters and mistresses alike would be very glad to defray,or assist in defraying,if they could only be assured on both sides of the beneficial character of the arrangements when made.

So widespread now are the operations of the Army,and so extensively will this Bureau multiply its agencies that it will speedily be able to make personal enquiries on both sides,that is in the interest alike of the emigrant and the intended employer in any part of the world.

SECTION 3.--THE SALVATION SHIP.