Immigration Restriction in Australia
![handle is hein.journals/jclilcs9005 and id is 149 raw text is: IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION IN
AUSTRALIA.
[Contributed by EVERARD DIGBY, ESQ.]
Britons' Access to British Soil.-Every spot of British soil may be
taken to offer footing to any British subject, and no sham or fanciful
obstacles can block the British foot from pressing British soil: the only
curtailment of a Briton's right to go where he may choose on British soil
is when policy calls for a sacrifice of that right in its entirety or in part
for the general good. The interests of a section of the community cannot
override this general right; the law will not permit a boycott in the
interests of a small faction.
The acquisition of new territory by the Empire; the wider development
of territory hitherto unprofitable; by improvements in industrial processes;
the greater facilities of transit; speed and certainty in mails and telegraph;
the increase of population, and the decrease in the productiveness of old
settled places; the charm of the unknown and the desire for rapid fortune
are influences which continually send crowds of Britons wandering over
the face of the globe, seeking the wealth which is denied them at home.
All these vagrom men, possessing British nationality, wherever they
reach British soil, assume that they have, prima fade, the right to tread
it. They know that one of the principles of British law is that no
captious checks shall be allowed to be placed upon a man's industry,
nor obstacles be allowed to be put in the way of his earning his living,
provided that in so exercising his industrial powers he may not be doing
harm to the community in which he may desire to find a place. He
will find in most places local laws regulating immigration-laws based on
the peculiar conditions of the particular places. Provided that these
laws are reasonable, he cannot have any quarrel with them, even when
they may be hostile to him.
More particularly it is in a possession which is in process of making,
and in which the people are desirous of retaining and continuing the
British character, that these restrictions will be found. In early settlement
men do not look much to the future, and so all comers are welcome;
but it is when generation has succeeded generation, and the permanency
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Immigration Restriction in Australia
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