MIGRATION RECONSIDERED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 295, 24 September 1938, Page 6

MIGRATION RECONSIDERED.

A series of official documents on Empire migration, of which the Overseas Settlement Board’s report is the latest, shows a gradual awakening to certain basic facts, writes Mr H. V. Hodson, editor of the “Round Table.” The first- fact is that modern migration in the Empire is primarily a matter of attraction by the immigrant country, rather than repulsion hv the emigrant country, and that for some time the attractiveness of the Dominions relative to the United Kingdom has been growing less, until it seems actually io ho negative. Secondly, Government-promoted migration—apart from cheap ocean passages —has not on the whole been a success in. the past, particularly where it has taken the form of organised landsettlement; and in any case it is of minor importance compared with spontaneous migration, of individual families. Thirdly, the land in the Dominions is no longer able to absoib a large number of newcomers, if indeed it can absorb any at all, not because it is infertile, hut because the markets for its products are limited, and liecause development is now intensive rather than extensive. ffmally, the state of the population of the United Kingdom in respect of birth-rate nuci age-structure no longer affords a surplus available for emigration.