169

A—s

under which the labour was to be employed there. On April the 12th, shortly afterwards, the Board of Emigration sent out a revise, which was as follows : " The Queensland Government has a system of free passages to " bona fide farm labourers and their families who are approved by the Agent- " General in London, and guarantees them employment in the State at full " wages; but up to the present the indents for such passages have been " limited to men willing to work on the sugar farms in the north. The " climate there is hot and moist." I gather that Mr. Deakin expressed the same view. Mr. DEAKIN : Yes. Mr. BURNS : " The climate there is hot and moist in the rainy season, from January to March, and hot and dry at other times, and is very "different from that to which farm labourers are accustomed in this " country. It is very questionable, therefore, whether they would be able "to work on arrival under the tropical conditions that prevail in North " Queensland. The work of harvesting and crushing cane is still more " trying, and is paid for at a higher rate. The free passage emigrant " need not engage in it unless he wishes; and indeed the work is not suitable " for persons from this country who have not resided for some time in " the tropics." I venture to say that both the original document and the revision sent out by the Board of Emigration are in accord with the statement made by Mr. Deakin himself here. The Board of Emigration thought it desirable that the people going to this particular tropical sugar belt should not be in any way under any misapprehension as to the kind of labour that they would have to do, because our experience here is that one grumbling, sore-headed, dissatisfied emigrant in a field of labour, when he has been attracted there through too glowing a description of what would happen to him when he arrived there, does more harm to the general flow and direction of emigration to that and other fields of labour than anything you can possibly conceive. The Board of Emigration, I think, with fairness and impartiality, decided that it is far better to tell the emigrants even the unpleasant truth, if it be the truth, as to the conditions of labour under which he can be employed, than to buoy them up with rosy descriptions that cannot be realised, of which, when communicated back as it always is by letter through the discontented one's complaints, the effect is to damage that particular district for 10, 15, or 20 years. The case quoted by Mr. Deakin is an evidence in my judgment of the great care and truthfulness and courage that the Board of Emigration has shown in this particular case. I may say that the Government of Queensland have expressed their appreciation so much of circulars and reports of the Board of Emigration, that only recently this year they have ordered 25,000 copies of the Board of Emigration's Handbook on the Colony. I can only say that in my judgment the Board of Emigration were well within their rights. It would have been a permanent injustice to the Queensland labour field unless they had made their revise. 1 am convinced that this incident will still further induce the Board of Emigration to place themselves more closely in touch with the Agents-General before issuing any information, or making any correction, or rectifying any mis-statement, and they will do their best to instruct the settler and the emigrant to find work under conditions that will be beneficial to him and we trust not detrimental to the Colony to which he goes. Having dealt with that incident, may I say a word or two —because it is pertinent- on the general question as to practical means. Mr. Deakin said that there was an obligation to direct actively to the Colonies the surplus 23—A. 5.

Sixth Day. 26 April 1907.

Emigration. (Mr. Burns.)