One cannot well conceive why a state, or any section or part of a nation, should make any contribution or raise any fund for the purpose of aiding emigration, ex cept it be with the view of bettering the condition of some who cannot find em ployment at home, and at the same time adopting some systematic plan for improv ing the condition of those who are left behind. Yet any system of emigration thus conducted by government, or by so cieties, or by the inhabitants of particular districts, would fail in its primary object, relief to the emigrants, unless a corre sponding amount of capital should be taken out of the country by other emi grants who might settle in the same place to which the emigrant labourers were sent. To effect such an adjustment be tween capital and labour, not only should both these elements of wealth in due pro portion be transported to the new country, but such proportion should, for some time at least, be maintained by the body which superintends such system of emigration ; an arrangement which seems imprac ticable, except by some such provisions as are hereinafter mentioned.
It is further to be observed that, as no persons can ever succeed as emigrants who are not sober, intelligent, and indus trious, and as such alone are consequently fit people to go to a new country, such alone should be sent out by a state or a society, if it interferes in the matter of emigration. But if a large number of the most industrious labourers should emi grate from a given district, and leave behind them the worthless and idle, though the emigrants might better their condition and improve the settlement of which they go to form a part, the mother country would , be no gainer by this change. We are not inclined to consider that any advantage, at all commensurate to the expense, would result from any emigration, however extensive, from dis tricts where there is a superabundant and pauperized, or a pauperized and not su perabundant population. If the idle, the ignorant, and the vicious were exported wholesale, they would only die a few years sooner in the land of their new settlement, without conferring any bereft on it, and those of the same kind who were left behind would hardly be more susceptible of improvement in consequence of the removal of any part of their num bers which did not amount to pretty nearly the whole number ; while the industrious and the intelligent,who, by the supposition, remain at home and are willing to labour whenever it is in their power, would hardly derive any benefit by this removal of the bad from among them, at all com mensurate to the amount of capital which must be expended on such wholesale ex portations. Besides, as already observed, unless a proper supply of emigrant capi talists can be secured, all general plans for the emigration of labourers can only lead to disappointment and starvation. Any plan, therefore, which shall have for its object the amelioration of a population sunk in ignorance or debased by pauper ism, must be one of an internal character, one which must gradually and on certain fixed principles aim at removing the evils which exist in the social system. Emi
gration must be left to the free choice of individuals, and must be recommended to the young, the sober, and industrious solely on the grounds of offering to them a reasonable prospect of bettering their condition in a new country.
The disadvantages of emigration how ever, when there is no plan, no controlling or directing power, are obvious. Emi grants often go to a new country without any definite or clear notion of what they are Dissatisfied or unhappy at home, imagination pictures to them a remote and unknown country as an asy lum from all the evils of life ; or if they have any distinct idea of the new kind of existence which they are going to adopt, they often underrate the difficulties of the undertaking, or form a false estimate of their own capabilities to meet them. It is no wonder then that so many, on land ing in the New World, are startled at the obstacles which then stare them in the face, and shut their eyes to the real ad vantages, such as they are, which a fertile unoccupied soil presents to a hardwork ing industrious man.
We have stated that any system of emigration for labourers without a corre sponding emigration of capitalists would be fruitless ; it is also obvious that if capitalists only were to emigrate without being able to secure a supply of labour, the result would be equally unfortunate.
Considerations like these led to the formation of a scheme of emigration which was first brought into operation in the colony of South Australia. " The distinguishing and cardinal principles of the colony of South Australia are, that all public lands shall be sold, and that the proceedsof the sale shall be employed in conveying labourers to the c,olony." Further : " It is essential to the prosperity of a new colony in which there are neither slaves nor convicts, that there should be a constant supply of free la bourers willing to be employed for wages. No productive industry worthy of the name can be undertaken, unless several hands can be put on the same work at the same time; and if there be not. in a colony in which the compulsory services of slaves or convicts cannot be obtained, a constant supply of labour for hire, no extensive farm can be cultivated, no large and continuous work can be carried on, and the capital imported must perish for want of hands to render it reproduc tive." (First Annual Report of South Australian Commissioners, 1836.) It was therefore the object of the com missioners to prevent the labourers, for some time after their arrival in the colony, from purchasing land. This was done by fixing the price of land sufficiently high to prevent the labourer from being tempted too soon to exchange that con nition which is for the time the most profitable both to himself and the body of emigrants for the apparently higher cha racter of a landowner.