Abstract
IN an article in NATURE of November 4 on population problems, reference was made to the failure of emigration for the time being. Commenting on the position, so far as Australia is concerned, Sir James Barrett, of Melbourne, in a letter to the Editor, states that the failure is not so disastrous in Australia as appears on the surface; despite the fact that, in Victoria alone, many millions of pounds will be lost on land settlement schemes. Few people realise that industrial farming requires for success scientific knowledge and training at least equal to, that required in any learned profession. Ill his paper read before the World Popijlatiqn Con.? ference in 1931 the late Prof. J. W. Gregory slxowad the importance of immigration to Australia in order that a population capable of making the utmost use of railways, etc., should be established in that country as quickly as possible. In Victoria more than £10,000,000 has been spent on irrigation works which, together with railways, were planned in accordance with a far-seeing land settlement policy. In addition, therefore, to the actual cost of land settlement schemes which the taxpayer, as Sir James Barrett says, is now forced; to meet, there is this further heavy expenditure, much of which has been incurred directly for immigration and land settlement. Prof. Gregory also made some interesting references to the varying estimates that have from time to time been drawn up as to Australia's capacity for supporting a large population. These range very widely, from about 200,000,000 estimated by Admiral Sir Edmond Slade to about 10,000,000 and other similar low estimates made in Australia itself, for example, by F. C. Benham of the University of Sydney. Prof. Gregory's own estimate was more nearly 100,000,000.
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Emigration Schemes in Australia. Nature 133, 243 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133243c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133243c0