B. FAMILIES.

The cost of preparing families for settlement is so great that no courses for families have been provided except those for serving soldiers, who receive pay from Army funds during the courses. But the civilian, if a wage earner, would have to surrender his job during preparation and presumably, therefore, have no money for his own or his family's support, while if he happened to be in receipt of unemployment benefit he would equally have to forgo that benefit whilst taking the course.

C. WOMEN AND GIRLS.

The preparation of women for life overseas is at least as important as the preparation of men. The Oversea Settlement Committee are deeply impressed with the need for doing more than has yet been done to facilitate settlement overseas for women. It is unnecessary to advocate such settlement on the ground that there is in this country a surplus amounting, in fact, to about 1,700,000, of women over men, or that there are fewer women than men in the Dominions overseas. It is the plain fact that women settlers are at least as necessary as men, and that if of the right type they can make, and if of the wrong type they can mar, the settlement with which they are associated. No schemes for placing British settlers on the land overseas can be successful unless the women who take part in them appreciate the conditions to which they are going, and are physically and mentally qualified to face the hard work which the wife of a farmer or the wife of a farm hand must be prepared for overseas.

An experimental centre has been started at Market Harborough in Leicestershire, at the joint expense of the British and Australian Governments, for preparing women for household work in Australia. This centre was formally opened by Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York on 10th December. It has accommodation for 50 women at a time, and the length of the course varies from six to ten weeks. Thus more than 200 women can be dealt with in a year. Practical instruction is given in cooking, laundry work, the care of a house, and in needlework. The results have so far been very gratifying. All who have taken the course can readily be placed in suitable employment in Australia, and receive the benefit of the free passage arrangements. It is hoped that additional centres for women may be established under the Empire Settlement Act.

D. Boys.

The Salvation Army Training Farm at Hadleigh still continues to deal with about 850 boys per annum. The Church Army Training Farm at Hemel Hempstead deals with 100 boys per annum, while Dr. Cossar's Farm at Craigielinn has recently been extended

so that it is now in a position to take 50 boys at a time and to deal with 200 boys a year. Mr. Fegan's Homes have a Training Farm for boys at Goudhurst in Kent, at which approximately 100 boys per annum are trained for farm work in Canada. Dr. Barnardo's Homes have established a reception centre for boys at Liverpool, where the boys are, by arrangement with local farmers and the municipal authority, taught simple farm operations and the care of animals, rough handicrafts, etc. The Church of England Waifs and Strays Society have also established a Training Farm in Staffordshire for testing 80 boys per annum with a view to their settlement on the land in Canada.

A new experiment which has been started at Newcastle-on-Tyne under the auspices of the Lord Mayor promises to provide admirable opportunities for giving boys the necessary training in the neighbourhood of their homes. With the co-operation of the City Council and other local authorities, together with the National Farmers' Union and the Miners' Welfare Association, a Training Hostel has been opened where boys of from 14 to 18 years of age are taught the rudiments of farming, care of animals, rough carpentry, etc. Arrangements have been made for the employment of the boys in the local municipal stables and dairies, and the farmers in the district have agreed to receive the boys on their farms, and give them experience of actual farm work. Certain parts of the course of instruction, i.e., carpentering, bootmending, etc., are taught in the hostel in which the boys are housed. The boys go daily in parties of three to the stables and farms, where they receive instruction.

The annual expenditure on the Newcastle scheme is estimated at £3,600, of which one-half will be provided by the Oversea Settlement Committee, and part by contributions from local bodies and the balance by the parents of the boys and by private subscriptions.

Lieut.-Colonel H. C. H. Hudson has generously devoted much time and trouble to the inauguration of the scheme, as has also Miss Merz, a well-known local resident.

Colonel Hudson is prepared to advise the Authorities in any other district where a similar scheme may be in contemplation. Interest has been aroused in other localities, and a number of towns are considering the question of establishing similar centres.

SECTION X.

The Nomination System.

Settlers who succeed overseas are the best of all recruiters of new settlers. They recruit, often unintentionally, by corresponding with their friends at home, and they recruit with a knowledge

based on actual experience. It was recognition of the value of the successful settler as a recruiter which led to the introduction of nominations. Under this system, which was inaugurated in Australia in early days, any resident in Australia who can guarantee suitable accommodation and satisfactory employment for a resident in Great Britain is allowed to apply for a grant from the Government towards the cost of the passage, or passages in the case of families, from this country to Australia. The advantages of the system are that persons thus "nominated" are able to travel cheaply and, provided those by whom they are nominated fulfil their pledges, are able to settle down at once in employment. The system applies equally to those who go out to take employment in agriculture and in industry. Of course, the State Government in all cases has to make sure that the nominator is in a position to carry out his guarantee, and that the local labour-market will not be adversely affected by the coming of the new settler.

The system was also in force in New Zealand at an early date. It was adopted in a modified form in Canada after the passing of the Empire Settlement Act, 1922, but, as previously indicated, it is restricted in that Dominion to men who are to take up employment upon the land or women who are to enter domestic service.

By an extension of the system voluntary organisations overseas, such as the Salvation Army, the Churches, the Young Men's Christian Association, now nominate not only specified individuals but types of settlers, i.e., so many farm hands, female servants, etc. In such cases the actual selection is undertaken by the corresponding organisation in this country. This system provides the chief means of moving assisted settlers from this country to the Dominions. It is, of course, indispensable to its success that the nominator should carry out his obligations towards those for whom he accepts responsibility.

The progress of the system since the passing of the Empire Settlement Act has been most marked. In the case of Australia, the number of nominated persons was 9,278 in 1923. In 1927 the number has risen to 23,272; at the same time, however, the numbers requisitioned by the States had fallen from 15,497 in 1923 to 6,669 in 1927. In the case of Canada, the total number of persons nominated by friends or relatives in 1927 was 3,878, and by voluntary societies 7,921.

The nomination system is specially valuable in facilitating family settlement, and it is further referred to in Section XI, which deals specially with that form of settlement.

It is hoped that the system will continue to expand in all the Dominions, and that nominations for Canada may be made available for persons wishing to enter other occupations besides agriculture.

SECTION XI.

Settlement of Families.

The Committee have frequently expressed the view that the settlement of families is the ideal form of oversea settlement. For suitable families with capital who receive no financial help from the State and are free after their arrival to engage in any form of work, either on the land or in industry, settlement in the Dominions should present little difficulty. For families without capital the difficulties are great. They necessarily face great risks when they sever the ties which bind them to this country and try to start life afresh in another part of the Empire. Apart also from the risks, there is a serious money difficulty. All families, even including those who receive the maximum State assistance in the shape of grants and advances towards the cost of their journeys, have to meet considerable expenses before departure from this country and after arrival overseas. Furthermore, openings in the Dominions suitable for families from this country are in reality more restricted than is commonly supposed.

NOMINATED FAMILIES.

Families are eligible for assisted passages to the Dominions if they can arrange to be nominated. Nominations (see also Section X) can be obtained through agents of the Dominion Government or some organisation, usually of a philanthropic nature, approved by the Dominion Government. For the most part, they are obtained by those families who have friends or relatives in one of the Dominions willing to nominate them and accept responsibility for finding a home and employment for them upon arrival overseas. The system should be utilised to the fullest possible extent, especially for families; by being nominated by someone who assumes responsibility for them when they arrive, they are safeguarded against the chief risks attendant upon settlement. In view, however, of the responsibilities incurred by nominators, the system is largely restricted to those who have friends or relatives in the Dominions and cannot be available to families generally. The effect of the restriction of nomination to land workers upon the settlement of families in Canada may be judged from the fact that in the year 1926 only 1,038 British families were nominated for assisted passages to Canada (apart from 981 families who went out under the 3,000 Families Scheme). In the same year, over 5,300 families were assisted to Australia and nearly 2,000 to New Zealand.

MARRIED FARM HANDS.

In theory there is an opening in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand for any married man who is prepared to work as a farm hand overseas. In practice, however, the man must be

experienced and the wife accustomed to life on a farm, or at least adaptable to it. The number of families in Great Britain with these qualifications is, of course, limited, nor is it desirable that the reservoir of agricultural families in Great Britain should be depleted. Unskilled families bave to contend with the difficulty that, being unskilled, they cannot expect more than a low rate. of wages until they have proved their usefulness. Consequently, it is difficult for them to earn enough to keep themselves. It is also difficult for them, even when they have acquired a knowledge of farming, to save enough money to enable them to set up on farms of their own. Furthermore, openings in the Dominions for married farm hands are restricted by the lack of continuity of employment and by the absence of housing accommodation upon the farms. These difficulties are accentuated in cases where there are children, and the greater the number of children, especially of young children, the greater do they become.

MARRIED FARMERS.

In recent years few families without capital have gone overseas with any prospect of settling at once, or at any early date, upon farms of their own, except those accepted for settlement under one of the schemes (see Section XII and Appendix III) arranged under the Empire Settlement Act. Of these schemes, the only ones under which families from this country are at present being settled are in Canada-the 3,000 Families Scheme, the new schemes for the settlement of 500 families in each of the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia during the next six years, and the small Clan Donald Scheme, under which some 20 further families are to be settled next season: also in Southern Rhodesia there is a settlement scheme restricted to persons, whether married or single, with not less than £900 capital.

With a view to reducing the cost of establishing British families upon the land in the Dominions, His Majesty's Government in Great Britain is in negotiation with the Governments in Canada. and Australia and at least one voluntary society with a view to contributing towards the cost of providing cottages for newlyarrived settlers. The intention is that the settlers thus established upon the land shall be entitled in due course, if suitable, to be accepted under any land settlement scheme in operation in the district in which they were established. It is contemplated that such of these families as do not prove themselves sufficiently qualified for settlement upon farms of their own will either remain upon the land as wage earners or will in due course find other openings. A satisfactory cottage, with an acre or two of land. could presumably be provided at a cost of about £200 in Canada. though according to present estimates the cost in Australia would be higher. In the case of those families which were not in due