Alien Stocks in Australia The white population of Australia is
so largely British or Irish by descent, that it is disquieting to think that it may not always be so. But the present tendency is dis- tinctly otherwise. In the year ending on June 30th last, the combined figures show that there was a net loss of 652 migrants of British stock. On the other hand there was a net gain of 6,769 aliens. The bulk of them came (rather unexpectedly) from the Italian and Balkan peninsulas— including 2,896 Italians, 1,078 Greeks, and 331 Albanians. The only category likely to cover exiled Jews was that of the 571 Germans. A definite attempt is now on foot to increase month by month the flow of British immigrants. The Australians themselves prefer British, and the best inducement to Britons to emigrate is evidence that a Dominion wants them, but no doubt economic forces favour immigrants with a lower standard of life. Hard-working Italian peasants make good settlers, and they are better able to stand the heat in latitudes like those of Queensland and Western Australia.
Previous page
