In seeking to arrange for the immediate resumption of immigration we believe the Government have accurately interpreted the wishes of the country. Although there may still be a few men of extreme views ready to oppose any and every scheme subsidized by the State for increasing the population of the colony by the introduction of immigrants, there will be found arrayed on the other side a vast majority of the people of South Australia.
It has become a recognized fact that independently of a system of immigration at the public expense sufficient provision cannot be made for the due development of the resources and industries of the province. The natural additions to the population have failed to keep up an adequate supply of effective labour ; and although South Australia offers substantial attractions to persons willing to work, it does not hold out those special inducements in the shape of rich gold-fields which have been of such advantage to the other colonies.
The scheme of immigration which the Government have espoused closely resembles in many of its features that now in force in Queensland. Their Bill, in the first place, repeals an Act of 1857-8, providing for the appointment of an Emigration Agent, and laying the foundation for a system of embarkation orders and remission certificates, the details of which are left to be defined by regulation. It is almost needless to say that this system was never brought into extensive operation. Those natives of England, Scotland, and Ireland who felt at all disposed to try their fortunes at the antipodes found it a much easier course to obtain from the authorities at home a free passage to Adelaide than put themselves in communication with persons inclined to deal in remission certificates.
Following upon the repeal of the existing Act, the Bill authorizes the appointment of an Emigration Agent in England and Immigration Agent in the colony. The duties of the latter are not very clearly indicated, and it is probable that they may be fairly entrusted to some officer at present in the public service. Concerning the former the Bill is more explicit. It requires him to give satisfactory security for the performance of the, work devolving upon him, and to obey the Act, the regulations, and the instructions, of the Commissioner; and it empowers him to appoint, subject to the approval of the Governor, such clerk a and sub-agents as are necessary to assist him in discharging efficiently the functions of his office.

These, according to the arrangements at present proposed, are neither few nor unimportant the has to superintend in England the carrying out, not merely of one, but of four or five distinct systems of immigration. The first, which may be described as the land-order warrant system, is that upon which the largest amount of curiosity will be felt. It does, not contemplate the introduction of agricultural settlers, and of agricultural settlers alone, but may be turned to account in bringing out any description of labour. The course to be pursued is somewhat inelegantly explained in the 6th clause, which reads thus :—'It shall be lawful for the Emigration Agent to issue a land-order warrant to each immigrant whom he shall have approved as suitable, and who shall not have previously resided in the said province, and who shall proceed direct from Europe to South Australia in a ship approved by the said Emigration Agent, and who shall have paid the full cost of the passage of himself or any other person, and approved by the said Emigration Agent.
Upon arrival in South Australia the holder of the warrant may exchange it for as many non-transferable land orders as there are persons whose passage money he has paid. If the immigrant introduced is over twelve years of age the value of the order is nominally fixed at £20, if between one and twelve at £10. These rates appear high in comparison with those at which persons were under the system of free immigration brought to the colony, but as it is not likely that vessels will be specially chartered to convey the holders of the land-warrants to Port Adelaide, it is reasonable to infer that their passage-money will be higher. Immediately upon its issue, the land-order becomes available to its full nominal value for the purchase of any country or suburban lands offered at auction, or which may be open for selection in any part of the province. From the fact that there is a proviso empowering the men who intend to reside personally upon the land for which they apply to use their orders in payment of the deposit-money, It may be assumed that those who have no such intention will not enjoy the privilege, but the matter is not put in a very clear light.
One of the features of the land warrant system is that enforces upon those deriving advantage under it the duty of remaining in the colony for two years. In furtherance of this very proper requirement, it is enacted that no orders shall be transferable until at least twenty-four months after date, and that the grants of lands purchased, in whole or in part, with them shall not be issued, to the purchasers until they have resided continuously in South Australia for a similar term. The only recognized way by which persons can make money on their orders before the two years are out is by depositing them in the Treasury, and obtaining upon them an advance equal to one fifth of their nominal value. The Bill does not render other dealings with the orders illegal, probably because it is thought that the State cannot be damnified by them.

Thus far we have referred solely to the primary plan of encouraging immigration elaborated by the Bill. Next in order comes a system which is decidedly novel, but which in the absence of further information we do not see our way clear to endorse.
It is thus described:—" The Governor in Council may authorize assisted passages to be granted to emigrants approved by the Emigration Agent, but unable to pay the whole cost of their passage, upon the terms specified in the second schedule to this Act," referring to the schedule, we find that it fixes a scale of rates as follows:—
Male or female under twelve years, £4 ; twelve years and upwards, £8. This branch of the Ministerial scheme is exceedingly bald and ill digested. The public are left to judge for themselves whether an allowance is to be made in land corresponding with the amount of purchase-money paid by the immigrant himself, and the Emigration Agent is left entirely to his own judgment as to the age of the persons to whom aid is to be afforded

The third system is that with which we are most familiar— the out and out free passage system. Authority is given to the Governor in Council to bring out, entirely at the expense of the State, female domestic servants and such other emigrants of the labouring class, approved by the Emigration Agent, as may from time to time be specially required in the said province, and for which the necessary funds shall have been previously voted by Parliament. There is little reason to apprehend that the indiscriminate and objectionable mode of importing immigrants in force a few years ago will be revived ; but the clause certainly opens the doors to it, and therefore should be modified.

The fourth plan specified in the Bill is that known as the nominating system. Persons sending to Europe for their friends, if those friends are considered desirable colonists, are entitled to look for a Government subsidy, amounting to £3 for any male or female under 14 years, £4 for any male or female over fourteen and under forty, and £8 for any male or female over forty and under fifty.

Why the premium should be so much higher for persons between the last mentioned age a than for those between twenty one and forty years of age is a point that requires explanation.
The fifteenth clause establishes a fifth system of immigration, which may best be described in the language used by the draftsman:—' If any person or persons, Company, Association, or Society, shall be desirous of bringing out at his or their own expense suitable emigrants from Europe to South Australia for the purposes of settling on the Crown lands thereof and cultivating the same, and shall enter into an agreement with the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Immigration for the conveyance of such emigrants from Europe to South Australia for the purposes aforesaid, and also enter into a covenant with the said Commissioner that such emigrants shall reside continuously in the said province for two years at the least from the date of their arrival, and if aliens shall within such period become naturalized, the Governor in Council may issue to such person or persons, Company, Association, or Society, a land-order in the form contained in the fourth schedule hereto, which land-order shall be of the value of sixteen pounds sterling for each adult emigrant as herein before specified, and a land-order of the value of eight pounds sterling for each child between the ages of one, and twelve years of age who maybe so conveyed."
These land orders are by the sixteenth section rendered available for the purchase of land, immediately transferable by delivery, and purchasable by the Government six months after date at a price not exceeding £13.
The seventeenth clause directs that nothing in the Bill shall be held to supersede in any way the provisions of Waste Lands Acts
; the eighteenth affixes, as a penalty for obtaining passage under false pretences, the payment of the whole cost of the passage, added to a fine not exceeding £50, or, in default, imprisonment for any term up to six months
; the nineteenth authorizes the framing of regulations
; and the twentieth and last gives a popular name to the Bill. In consideration of the importance of the subject, we have thought it well to give a comparatively exhaustive resume of the provisions of this measure, which it will be observed abolishes the existing limitation as to the nationality of immigrants to be admitted into the colony, and affords all Europeans, provided they submit to naturalization, equal privileges with native-born British subjects. Speaking merely from a first perusal of the Bill, we feel inclined to echo the statement of Mr. Ward, that it will require to be considerably altered before it is passed into law.
At the same time we give the Government full credit for taking in hand a subject which urgently demands attention.

This last-mentioned requirement, although it does not appear in the old regulations, is a reasonable one, but it is arguable whether the condition borrowed from the free passage rules of 1858, "that the candidates must be in the habit of working for wages at one of the callings indicated in the list of classes given above, and must be going out with the intention of working for hire in his calling," should be enforced in all its features. No great harm would be done by applying the system to the introduction of persons of limited means, who, even if they have been in the habit of working for wages, desire on their arrival to engage in the cultivation of the land on their own account.
To the statement of who are ineligible, little exception can be taken. It specializes persons intending to proceed to the other Australian Colonies ; persons in the habitual receipt of parish relief ; families who have more than two children under seven or than three under ten years of age (a somewhat questionable restriction) ; children under fourteen (formerly sixteen) without their parents ; husbands without their wives or wives without their husbands— unless in the three last mentioned instances the parents, wife, or husband be in the colony ; single women who have had illegitimate children ; and persons who have not arranged with their creditors. All persons coming out under the regulations are required— personally in the case of single adults of fourteen years and upwards, and by the head of the family in other cases— to sign prior to embarkation an undertaking in the sum of £20, which is not to be enforced unless those on whose behalf it has been given, attempt to leave South Australia within two years after arrival. To eligible persons complying with this and other conditions the Emigration Agent is to issue in rotation, according to the date at which his approval was obtained, embarkation orders, entitling the holders to passages. It has not been thought necessary to place any limit upon the number of applications, but of course the totals will be regulated by the amount voted by Parliament. The provision in the rules of 1858, that persons nominating immigrants shall engage to maintain them or pay the Government a moderate sum for their maintenance during a period of twelve months, is also omitted, presumably on the ground that there is no prospect of more labour being introduced than can be at once absorbed. The scale of payments fixed is, on the whole, more liberal towards applicants for assisted passage certificates than that in force at the present time, or than that proposed under the Bill now before the Assembly.

There are three separate classes, arranged according to age, no distinction being drawn between males and females. For those under fourteen years of age £3 has to be paid, for those over fourteen and under forty £4, and for those over forty and under forty-five £6.
No assistance is to be rendered to persons who have passed their forty-fifth year. Full instructions are given as to the manner in which applications are to be sent in to the Emigration Agent, and explicit information as to the manner in which they are to be treated. The embarkation-orders issued will contain particulars as to the vessel in which the holder is to proceed to South Australia, and is in no case transferable. The character of the outfit of immigrants, and the conditions to be observed by candidates before and after receiving their embarkation-orders, are carefully defined. The regulations relating to remission certificates are to remain almost intact, in principle they resemble clauses in ; the Queensland Immigration Act, but they are much more restrictive. As considerable misapprehension prevails in reference to this system, we quote the rules in full.

They run thus : — "Persons having resided in South Australia for at least one year, who may introduce from the United Kingdom at their own cost immigrants of either of the classes specified in the Assisted Passage Regulations, shall be entitled on the arrival of those immigrants to receive from this office a certificate for an amount equal to the cost which might have been incurred by the Government for the emigration of such persons, such certificate to be receivable as cash at the Treasury for the purchase of Crown lands on or after maturity, and the amount expressed therein to be based upon the average contract rate payable per statute adult for emigrants by the three Government emigrant vessels then previously reported as chartered : Provided —

These rules may be taken advantage of by persons not coming within the four classes declared eligible for nomination, provided that such persons are in good health and have paid 'the whole of their passage- money, according to the "average contract rate payable per statute adult for emigrants by the three Government vessels then previously reported as chartered." This condition has apparently been borrowed from the regulations of some colony in which immigration is in full progress, for there is no likelihood that the stream of population from abroad flowing into the colony will require three or more vessels to accommodate it. The Government bind themselves to bring out persons such as those just referred to, who, although excluded from the benefits of the assisted passage system, have paid their outward fare in full.

Agricultural and Pastoral Labour
One of the primary uses of a Census is to furnish information as to the industrial distribution of the people, and this feature is especially important in young countries where industries are at first mainly tentative. It is only after many experiments have been tried and many disappointments have been endured that enterprise finds its natural directions, and capital is withdrawn from unprofitable channels. How this process of selection is being accomplished in South Australia may be ascertained by a study of the figures published from time to time relating to the occupations of the people. The latest returns upon the subject have just been issued from the Census Office, and afford material for attentive examination, not only by the few upon whom nature has conferred the singular gift of loving statistics for their own sake, but by all who feel an interest in our national progress. By politician a particularly they deserve to be carefully inspected, seeing that they supply valuable hints as to the course that legislation should take. An inspection of the figures having reference to the producing interests shows, in the first place, that agriculture 13 still greatly in advance of all other branches of industry, so far as the number of persons for whom it provides employment is concerned. The total of farmers in the country has, during the ten years between 1861 and 1871, increased, from 7,090 to 8,531. This addition of 1,441 is comparatively insignificant in a colony like South Australia, where so much attention is paid to land cultivation. How far the exodus that set in four or five years ago is to be blamed for the unsatisfactory result exhibited it is impossible to say, for no statistics have been obtained as to the number of farmers who have left South Australia. .... the rest of this section has been omitted

Prominent among the items of interest-which the Gazette of December 26 contains are the new Regulations issued under the authority of the " Immigration Act of 1872," but a careful examination of these would really lead one to suppose that they had been compiled not before, but in the very midst of the Christmas festivities. They not only set all the laws of grammar at defiance, but they are in some places scarcely intelligible, while one portion is so inconsistent with another that we are at a loss how they can possibly be worked at all. As these regulations will have to be circulated in England as well as here we hope for the credit of the colony that they will be recalled, and at least their more glaring errors corrected.
With such conflicting provisions it is impossible for us, without drawing largely upon our imagination, to give a coherent account of all that they are intended to proclaim ; and as it is inconceivable that they can be left in their present form, we prefer to postpone our analysis until the needful corrections have been made. We may say, however, in the meantime that with these needful corrections they will probably be well adapted for their purpose.
The checks which the Government have evidently intended to provide against [at sea] are judiciously conceived, although they are at present in a very imperfect form ; and the same may be said of the Regulations prescribing the classes of emigrants deemed to be ''eligible or suitable." These will include— .

1. Artisans, agricultural and other labourers, miners, and gardeners, under fifty years of age.
2. Single female domestic servants or widows (without children under twelve), not exceeding thirty-five years of age.
3. The wives and children of married emigrants.

Elaborate directions are given as to personal qualifications, forms of application, outfit, and so forth, but these also need further consideration. For example, they are silent as to any inspection by an Emigration Agent : they require all intending emigrants to get a certificate from "the Magistrate or clergy man of the parish" where they reside as to their characters, ages, and callings, which we believe is very often arbitrarily refused ; in the specification of a necessary outfit it might be well to include a comb and hairbrush as well as soap and towels ; while the terms of the clause requiring emigrants to give a bond for £20 to secure their residing at least two years in the colony suggests the question whether such a bond signed by an "adult of twelve years'' could be sued upon if he made default. The new Act is intended to be exceedingly liberal, and we hope its intentions will be more clearly defined than, they were in the regulations which we have thus referred to.

Having a week ago described the disgraceful condition in which the new Immigration Regulations had been issued, we were not surprised to find in this week's Gazette a reissue of similar regulations accompanied by a notification that those of last week had been "incorrectly printed." We are very considerably surprised, however, to find that this pretended revision has extended only to the correction of three out of the numerous glaring blunders we pointed out, while other equally glaring blunders, which we did not take the trouble to specify, still remain, a monument of the incapacity of those who are responsible for them. We can understand how even such a discreditable document as that we condemned last week might find a Minister napping, and so get published in its incorrect form, but Mr. Reynolds cannot shift on to anyone else's shoulders the responsibility of the blunders he has now formally adopted as his own. The "corrected" regulations he has now issued are still written in English of which a school boy ought to be ashamed ; they are in some places ungrammatical, and in others incoherent ; they are jumbled together without any pretence at order ; they impose restrictions which are not justified by the Act ; and they concede privileges which the Act does not grant. If they are sent to England in their present form they will become the bewilderment and the laughing-stock of every educated man who may attempt to master their provisions. To show that this is no exaggeration we will refer Mr. Reynolds to instances of everyone of these charges. For his English, we still find such phrases as "a child between the ages of one and twelve years of age"—"persons desirous of procuring a passage of any emigrants"—"emigrants approved as suitable by an Emigration Agent proceeding to South Australia "— not to mention longer sentences of faulty construction. For his want of grammar we refer Mr. Reynolds to Caution No. 2 of Schedule VI., in which he has left out the verb. For incoherency, we invite him to explain the reference in clause 11 of the Assisted Passage Regulations to clause 5 of the same, or to tell us whether clauses 1 and 3 of the same regulations are really intended to require persons in Europe to present a Treasury receipt at the office in Adelaide in order to get an embarkation-order, which they must produce to the Emigration Agent in London. Again, we ask him to explain why he calls a person in Europe who may not intend to emigrate a "settler," or what definite meaning he attache ; to the phrase "after the expiry of two years from continued residence in the colony by the holder of any land-order." For the want of order referred to we cite the fact that the rules applying to all land-orders are scattered in detached fragments through the regulations in such a way as to mislead rather than to enlighten. For the imposition of restrictions not justified by the Act we refer, first, to the provision which compels all emigrants to be certificated by the Immigration Agent at Port Adelaide before any land-order can be claimed, even though the same emigrants have been officially approved before their embarkation ; and, secondly, to the clause which requires a land-order holder 1o prove in all cases, that the emigrants in respect of whom he may have obtained his land-order have resided two years in the colony. As to the first of these provisions the Act expressly declares ; that persons paying their own passage-money shall, if they have been approved by the Emigration Agent, receive a land-order on their arrival in Adelaide. They are therefore in a position to demand their land-orders whether the Adelaide official passes them or not. As to the second of these provisions, clause 7 of the Act simply requires the holder and the transferee of a land-order to have resided two years in the colony, and it is silent as to the residence of the persons in respect of whom the land-order is issued. By the Act a man may bring out a large party of approved emigrants and obtain land-orders in respect of all of them and provided he resides two years in the colony he can obtain full value for these land-orders, even though every one of the emigrants who accompanied him may have left the colony the day after they landed in it. No doubt Mr. Reynolds's regulation imposes a wise restriction upon this improvident concession of the Legislature, but we do not think he has any power to impose it. Finally, as to the privileges conceded by the Regulations beyond those sanctioned by the Act we need only point to the very first clause, which professes to grant to any persons paying the passages of emigrants to this colony the right to claim corresponding land orders, whereas the Act expressly limits this right to persons who are themselves emigrants, and who have never before resided in South Australia.
With these and other instances which we can specify if need be of conflict between the Regulations and the Act it is difficult to say how far the former will entitle persons operating under them to claim all the benefits they profess to concede, and we are therefore not disposed to assist in misleading anyone on this subject by detailing provisions which in our judgment have not the force of law. Of most of the regulations therefore a very brief description will suffice. The first section is headed "Land-Order Warrants and Land-Orders," and professes to describe the rights of persons paying the full cost of the passage to the colony of themselves or others. It also contains some general rules which ought to apply to all land orders, but which it restricts to certain classes of land-order only. The second section similarly declares the right of persons resident in the colony to nominate emigrants, and on payment of the passage-money in full to obtain land-orders in respect of such emigrants so soon as they reach the colony. The third section authorizes persons or Companies bringing out emigrants to obtain land-orders in respect of the same under specified conditions which we have fully described in former articles explaining the provisions of the Act. The fourth section gives us another general regulation in respect of land-orders, providing that the Commissioner of Crown Lands may make advances without interest to the holders thereof. The fifth section gives us the "Assisted Passage Regulations under which settlers may obtain assistance out of the public funds towards the introduction of emigrants, &c.," and it characteristically sets out by stating that "any person in Europe" may obtain such assistance on payment also of a sum varying from £3 for a child under 12 years, to £8 for a person over 40. Residents in the colony may also procure passages for approved emigrants from Europe on payment of similar sums. In return for such payments they will receive passage certificates having twelve months' currency, which will be transferable to any approved emigrants. The following definition is given of the "classes eligible or suitable:"—

1. Artisans, agricultural and other labourers, miners, and gardeners, under fifty years of age.
2. Single female domestic servants or widows (without children under twelve) not exceeding thirty-five years of age.
3. The wives and children of married. emigrants.

The emigrants under these regulations— personally, in the case of single adults of twelve years and upwards, and by the head of the family in other cases— must, prior to embarkation, sign an undertaking to pay the sum of twenty pounds, which, however, will not been enforced unless the person, or any one or more of the persons named in such undertaking, or on whose behalf such undertaking shall have been given, shall leave, or attempt to leave, South Australia within two years after arrival.
The Emigration Agent will, after approval by him, issue embarkation-orders to persons thus nominated and approved in rotation, according to date of acceptance.

The qualifications of candidates are thus defined:—

"Eligible Candidates. — The candidates must be in the habit of working at one of the callings mentioned above, and must be going out with the intention of working in one of those occupations. They must be sober, industrious, of good moral character, in good health, free from all mental and bodily defects, within the ages specified, appear physically to be capable of labour, and have been vaccinated or had the smallpox.

"Ineligible Candidates.— Passages cannot be granted to persons intending to proceed to any other Australian colony than South Australia ; to persons in the habitual receipt of parish relief ; to children under twelve without their parents ; to husbands without their wives, or wives without their husbands (unless, in the last three instances, the parents, husband, or wife be in South Australia) ; to single women who have had illegitimate children ; or to persons who have not arranged with their creditors."

Candidates not answering to the above requirements may nevertheless come out as emigrants, provided that they pay the balance of their passage-money, and that they are in good health and not likely to become chargeable to the province. Rules as to applications for passages and as to outfit follow, which it is needless to detail, as they apply solely to persons in England, who are required as their first step to apply to Mr. Dutton tor all needful information. The final section of the regulations gives some more rules to be observed in the issue of land-orders. Some of its provisions are certainly void as being ultra vircs, and one provision, which requires that all persons introducing immigrants from Europe must themselves be approved by an Emigration Agent, would, we fancy, be equally void from its absurdity. Attached to the regulations are the various prescribed forms of land-orders, passage certificates, and so forth, which we need not detail, as the papers themselves must be applied for before any action can be taken. We may note, however, in passing that the third schedule, the incongruities of which we pointed out a week ago, still remains unaltered. We once more appeal to the Government not to let this discreditable State paper go forth to Europe in its present form as a specimen of how we manage our affairs in South Australia.

Transfers under the Land Act.— .... the rest of this section has been omitted