CHARACTER OF IMMIGRANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 212, 7 September 1922, Page 3

CHARACTER OF IMMIGRANTS.

. I TRAINING FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.! (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, duly 14. j The publication of a cubic in to-day's "Times" ill which Mr. .Massey is said to j have commented unfavourably on the type of immigrant arriving in New Zca-| land, lias been rend with considerable j astonishment in London. Sir James Allen, on being interviewed , by our London correspondent, declared jthat there must be some mistake in tbe j message, that no complaint had reached j | the Government oflicc in London. On the contrary, their choice of immigrants j | had been almost invariably registered! ,as most satisfactory. At most one or two out of all that bad been sent bad I proved unsatisfactory. Mr. H. tl. . Cameron, Commissioner of Immigration, (also expressed bis astonishment at the, [cable, the exact terms of which ne re-j I produce here : — I WELLINGTON". July 13. j I Though be admitted that the present j I heavy immigration into New Zealand, j was of an unsuitable kind. Mr. Massey,! , speaking in the House of Kepresenta- I [lives, aHivniprl the necessity for a vigor-j I : ous immigration policy. j Mr. Massey said that the British bad ' given them tlie right to come to this I country; should they now say to the ' I British, "Keep out"? Times were worse lin Great Britain than in New Zealand. , Great Britain was over-populated, and i! the finest thing for New Zealand would be to receive half a million immigrants [ of the right stamp in the next few years. s The Opposition's no-confidence amendment was defeated after a long debate 'I by 37 votes to 20. | The High Commissioner last work . , had a long talk with .Mr. Amery, who is I taking active steps to make a success of , the policy inaugurated by his Overseas '; Settlement Act. As a result, Sir .lames | Alb-n lias forwarded to New Zealand a suggestion by which the New Zealand Government may co-operate with the Imperial Government in a scheme for \ • training boys in orphanages in agricul- | ture for a year as ti means of preparing j ! them to be useful immigrants. Through i ( the Overseas Settlement Act tlie ovrrI seas Governments will save a certain ] amount n/«' absorbed by passage money. The scheme Sir James proposes will employ the money saved towards giving boys some preliminary training in farming. Sometlung of the like , nature could also be done by way of 'giving girls who have been brought up in orphanages a training speciallyadapted for preparing them to take up domestic work overseas. Tlie draft scheme is being forwarded to the NewZealand Government, and nothing will be undertaken before the Dominion authorities have examined into the scheme and authorised it.