Happily this will not be an immediate necessity in India.  Over the extended area occupied by the various races which comprise the Indian Empire, large tracts of land still wait to be conquered by well-directed industry, and the numerous settlements which it will be possible to form in different parts of the country may for some time to come absorb the surplus labour, add to the wealth of the country, the stability of the Empire and the more rapid advancement of the Kingdom of Christ.  Since, however, we must look forward to emigration as the ultimate solution of the problem which confronts us, we shall briefly indicate the lines upon which we propose to carry it out.

In the establishment of Over-sea Colonies we shall follow very closely the lines laid down in “Darkest England.”

At present the continuous stream of emigrant labour flowing into existing colonies already overstocked with labor, is creating serious difficulties, and we have no idea of relieving a congested labour market in one country by overstocking another:  this would be, not to heal the disorder, but only to shift the locality.

It may not be generally known how extensively emigration is already resorted to by the people of India.  We know that the impression is abroad that Indians will not leave their country, that they fear the sea, are too much attached to their home and their customs, and are far too much filled with the dread of losing caste to yield to any pressure that may be brought to bear upon them to quit the shores of their own land for foreign fields of labour.  As a matter of fact, however, emigration to a considerable extent already exists.

In Ceylon alone there are nearly 300,000 Tamil coolies employed on the Tea Estates, besides hundreds of thousands more who have permanently settled in various parts of the Island.  Vast tracts in the Island are still waiting to be occupied.  The former population of Ceylon is variously estimated as having been from twelve to thirty millions,—­now it is only three!  Is it impossible for us to suppose that it can be restored to its former prosperity?  Immense tanks and irrigation works cover the entire country in tracts which are now unoccupied and desolate.  Many of these have been restored by Government, and there are now 100,000 acres of irrigable land in that country, only waiting to be occupied and cultivated.  Government is ready to give it on easy terms.  Here, then, alone is a wide and hopeful field for Indian emigration, only requiring to be skilfully directed in order to find a home and living for millions of India’s destitute.

Now what we propose to do is not to check the stream of emigration, nor yet to help it to flow on in its present channel until it overflows its banks and engulfs in ruin the colonies it might have enriched, but rather to dig out new channels, founding entirely new colonies in districts yet unoccupied, on the plan laid down in “Darkest England.”