155

A.—4

"2 June, 1911.J Labour Exchanges and Emigration. [kth Day. Sir WILFRID LAURIER—eo»*. is also to be specially noted that the question of a system of interchange between labour exchanges in the Dominions and the labour exchange system of Great Britain has already been the subject of discussion by the labour organizations in the Dominion, and that there are grounds for believing that any project of the kind would meet with unqualified opposition from this source." .For those reasons chiefly my own view would be on the same lines, and I should have to say that the motion would not be met with any favour by the country I represent here. Mr. FISHER : I will ask Mr. Batchelor to speak on behalf of the Commonwealth. Mr. BATCHELOR : The position in Australia in regard to this matter is more like the position which Sir Wilfrid Laurier has just outlined as the position in Canada. As far as immigration is concerned, the management is divided between the States Governments and the Federal Government. So far the Federal Government has confined itself to advertising with a view to obtaining immigrants; but the selection of men to be obtained which the exchanges propose to take in hand has been left entirely in the hands of the agencies of the States Governments —agencies controlled by the Agents-General of each State in London. I communicated with the Agents-General and asked them to meet me, in order to discuss the proposals a few days after I arrived here, and they were quite unanimous in their opposition to the view that they would gain any advantage in selection, or that the Colonies they represented would gain any advantage whatever, from this proposed extension of labour exchanges. They put forward a number of objections, some of which I have here, expressed at very great length. It might be possibly an advantage if we were to consider them in committee; but, speaking generally, it is clearly evident that the present organization of emigration activity in London and the United Kingdom meets with their entire approval, and they state that it is working very satisfactorily indeed, and they cannot see any advantage, and they see a certain number of disadvantages, that could accrue from the adoption of these labour exchange proposals. They also, for the most part, confine themselves to the introduction of farm labourers, for which, as in Canada, there is an unlimited demand, and domestic servants. As far as artisans are concerned, there has been no difficulty in getting any number of artisans to emigrate to Australia; the difficulty has been farm labourers. They also state that their activities are chiefly directed to securing men who are already in employment rather than the unemployed; and therefore, though some of them express the view that many of the men you are registering on the exchanges would be exceedingly suitable, and they do utilize the information which is furnished by the ex changes in order to reach the men that they desire to emigrate, still they do not think, speaking generally, that the men who are unemployed are the men whom they wish first to encourage to emigrate. I admit I do not know very much about the working of the exchanges here, and I should be glad to get some more information as to the working of these labour exchanges before expressing any very definite opinion as to what extent we could work" in along with them. There are some very clear difficulties in the scheme as outlined, one of which is the great distance between Australia and the United Kingdom, and the time taken thereby in communicating the wants of the employers, which would have to be done in writing, and could hardly, satisfactorily be done by cable; and the fact is that the time taken in communicating and in selection and then in despatching would probably amount to about six months in the case of Australia, and that would mean that the whole conditions of the labour market in any particular industry or any particular locality might have changed during that time. The opportunities, therefore, of its general use seem to be rather small and rather confined. I think it would be a good thing if this matter were relegated to a sub-committee who might go into it a little more closely, arid we could then see if some of the difficulties which have been set out by the Agents-General could not be met. Of course, I wish it to be understood that we are exceedingly desirous of encouraging immigration, and there is no bar whatever to the introduction of immigrants, as you all know. As the Prime Minister mentions, poverty, or