is, to 1.6 per cent. of all the prisoners who had been received into the various gaols during the year. The expenditure of the prisons department has also materially decreased during the same period; in 1895 the cost for the year was 129,0591., and in 1910, notwithstanding a considerable increase in the salaries of officers, and a more liberal diet for the prisoners, it was but 82,1301.

No doubt many causes have contributed to bring about these remarkable results. As the Comptroller-General says in his Report for 1911: 'Improved methods of classification in use in the prisons, aiming at the elimination, as far as possible, of all contaminating influences' have had their share; and the general spread of education has in a large measure moulded the lawabiding instincts of the community,' while the fact that 'for many years there has been abundance of work at remunerative rates of pay has been the means of reducing the ranks of the occasional offender, a class considerably affected by the social elements.'

But I believe that probably by no means the least of the causes of the decrease of the criminal population has been the adoption of more rational and humane methods in dealing with the waifs and strays of the State.

CHARLES K. MACKELLAR.

Figures to the left give the prison population; those on the right the general population. Dotted line shows the growth of the general population; the black line shows the variation in the prison population. The population in both cases is taken as on the 31st December in each year.

On the last day of 1891 out of every 445 of the general population 1 was in gaol

31st December 1894-General population, 1,251,450; Gaol population, 2604

From these figures it will be seen that during the last sixteen years the gaol population has decreased actually by 1284, and relatively, as regards the general population, by 2197.

CHART showing GENERAL POPULATION and PRISON POPULATION of New South Wales for each year from, and inclusive of 1890, to the year ended 31st December 1910. (Taken from the Report of the Comptroller General of Prisons.)

Prison Population.

1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1906 1909. 1910.

General Population

1,690.316

2650

1,680,000

BRITISH LANDS AND BRITISH

EMIGRATION

OF schemes to provide homes and careers for British folk in British Colonies there is no lack. Some are initiated by the Colonial Governments themselves, some are developed through semi-official agencies, and others are the outcome of private benevolence, or private enterprise organising benevolence on business lines. Methods vary, but the objects are the same-to find places abroad for those for whom their Motherland has no place, to offer a future abroad to those with little hope here. There are thus three parties to the great process of organised migration—the colony which receives the migrants, the Mother Country which provides them, and the migrants themselves. For two out of the three the arrangement is admirable. The colony is enriched by the advent of sturdy citizens, energetic, capable, vigorous; taking good care to admit none but those with respectable credentials and the attributes which make for success, in every boatload of immigrants it receives the elements essential to national progress. The migrants, endowed with these qualities, have before them a career, rough perhaps, and hard, but a career with great possibilities. They have exchanged a monotonous round of unrewarded drudgery for a path which may be rugged, but which leads to better things. Behind them lies hopelessness, before them there is, at least, the chance of success, an opportunity.

But what of the Mother Country? What is her share in the transaction? An endless bidding of farewell to people of whom she has great need at home. There is, indeed, a considerable class of which the Mother Country could take leave without any poignant emotion; but that class does not go, for the good reason that no other country has any more use for it than we have. The shuffling wastrels, the lawless hooligans, the professional out-o'-works, the useless flotsam of the cities-these accumulate, while the blood and bone and sinew, the stalwart, the efficient go. In every boatload of emigrants Britain sees herself drained of these elements that are essential to national existence.

It is not easy, perhaps not possible, to determine with accuracy the extent of this drain, but an approximate estimate may be made on an analysis of the following figures of persons leaving

the United Kingdom for places out of Europe during the last half-century :

These figures, of course, cannot safely be assumed to represent the exact growth of emigration as distinguished from casual transit during the period given. With enlarged facilities for travel the number of those who pay flying visits on business or pleasure to distant countries has without question greatly increased. But that they do indicate an enormous growth of permanent emigration becomes clear when we consider the figures. which show the balance of movement between the United Kingdom and non-European countries during the last thirty years. (The comparison beyond that date is impossible, since figures of separate nationalities entering the United Kingdom are not available before 1876.) It appears that in the decade 1881-91 the net balance of migration outwards from the United Kingdom was 1,754,095; in the period 1891 to 1901, 735,800; and in the decade just ended, 1,481,139. This latter figure is, however, probably below the mark. If we remember that a vast number of soldiers, who had gone to South Africa before March 1901, returned during the last census period, it is probable that the figure of emigration was close on 1,600,000. We find, therefore, that during the last thirty years about 4,000,000 emigrants have left the country. It would further appear that the increase of emigration has come entirely from Great Britain, for the number of persons leaving Ireland has decreased by nearly one-half since 1861-71, and by about 33 per cent. since 1881-91.

Study of the Census Report' lately published leads to the conclusion that emigration is on the increase at the present time. During the last decade the figures have steadily grown. Thus, the net balance of movement outwards was 233,709 in 1910, as compared with 72,016 in 1901. Comparing the gross movement outwards in those two years according to nationality, we obtain the following result:

Here we find the emigration more than twice as great from England and Wales, nearly four times as great from Scotland, about 50 per cent. greater from Ireland. For the moment let the latter country be dismissed from our purview, while we consider only the drain of population from Great Britain.

Quantitatively regarded, it is serious; considered qualitatively it becomes a portent. If it merely represented the clearing out of the surplus urban population, we might dismiss it with the reflection that, while it is regrettable that we cannot find work for all our people, their going is inevitable, and leaves elbow-room for others. There are even aspects from which the efflux of the urban population might be regarded as an advantage. But the emigration which is actually in progress gives no room for satisfaction, no shade of consolation, not even the poor consolation that it is inevitable. The gravest phenomenon of emigration is this-that while its volume grows its source becomes narrower. Half a century ago the new countries welcomed all who came to them. A great poet of the West could still write with truth of his country as one

Whose latch-string never was drawn in

Against the poorest child of Adam's kin.

Neither poverty, nor occupation, nor idleness was a bar against immigration. Men went on chance, they were taken on trust; there were places for all if they were able to fill them. In those days emigration did to a considerable extent reach the unemployed class, it did touch the surplus population.

That era has passed. The new countries have become fastidious. They have their own native-born people who have to be provided for, who are to be protected against undue competition. And such competition is in the towns. The new countries are beginning to have urban problems of their own; they do not want to add to them by filling their towns with the city-bred men of Europe, who shall be competitors for every odd job, who will swell the army of casual labour. The latch-string is rigorously drawn in when any such approach the door. There is another class of emigrants for whom it dangles temptingly, for whom, indeed, the door stands always open-the men of the fields, the young and vigorous men who come from the hamlets and the cottage either direct, or after filtration through the cities of the Motherland in vain quest of work. For such there is urgent need in the Colonies to people the empty spaces, to clear the forests, to bring the land, idle through the ages, into cultivation, to provide for the national defence. Women, too, the Colonies need and welcome, less for the immediate purpose of domestic service than for the ultimate purpose of becoming the mothers of a nation. Bearing in mind the altered social condi