The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1926. IMMIGRATION METHODS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 147, 23 June 1926, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1926. IMMIGRATION METHODS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

Almost inevitably the Government's immigration system—it cannot be dignified by the name of policy—was the first subject debated by the new Parliament. So completely unsatisfactory arc the methods adopted, even to supporters of tlie party in power, that the leader of the Labour Opposition had complete justification for basing his first challenge to the administration upon this question, and its twin—the unemployment problem. Of course, the attack failed in its main objective; the strength of Mr. Coates' following ensured that from the outset, but the amendment served to focus attention upon the weakest joint in the armour of Reform. As Minister in charge of Immigration, the Hon. \V. Nosworthy declared that no criticisms would divert the Government from a course which had benefited incalculably thousands of immigrants and the Dominion as a whole. That is just exactly what may have been expected from Mr. Nosworthy. There are some people whom even the hard school of experience will not teach, anil we fear that the Minister we have quoted is included in that category. Mr. Holland asserted that one of the primary causes of unemployment was the immigration policy of the Government, and that many of the immigrants were misled into the belief that houses and work Were waiting for them here. There can be no doubt of the justice of Mr. Holland's criticism. Hundreds of the immigrants who arrive in the Dominion by shiploads every month have not the faintest conception of what they are coming to, or of the conditions awaiting them. Admittedly thousands of them are absorbed, are useful citizei:*. and live under better conditions than they left in the Mother Country. But, on the other hand, probably an equal number are not so well off here as they were under the familiar conditions which they left. There is no unemployment dole to tide them over periods when work cannot be obtained, and there are not the many avenues of employment which are available in the industrial districts of Britain. This would not apply if a real iminigra tion policy were developed. There is room and to spare for thousands of immigrants, provided proper methods of selection are adopted and something effective done for their reception on arrival. This is a primary producing country, and its great need is men who will go out into the country and increase the areas under cultivation. Men who have lived in the great cities and have specialised in trades some of which are unknown here are not fitted for this life, vet they come out in their thousands to swell the cities and to intensify the recurrent problem of finding work in the secondary industries. What is needed is the selection of agriculturist* of all kinds, and then, when they arrive, a definite scheme for their immediate entry into the producing class. The Minister of Lands contends that there is no land available for this purpose. His contention is quite unsound, and it did not take Sir Joseph Ward long to point out the way to him. Sir Joseph urged the Minister to take the bull by the horns and reduce tha value of high-priced lands which no one could profitably occupy. By doing this thousands of acres of Crown lands which are still lying idle would, with simultaneous road development, be made possible of selection, and further lands which are in private hande, but not profitably used, could be acquired, subdivided into -workable areas, and mada available for scores of land-hungry settlers. There are difficulties in the way—perhaps the greatest is that the big landholders are supporters of the party now in office—but the difficulties are not insuperable, and a Government seized with the importance of the subject should delight in conquering them. From the tone of Ministerial speeches on the debate, however, it seems more than probable that the immobile attitude will be continued, that immigrants will still be deluded concerning conditions and prospecte in New Zealand, and that the old haphazard method of dumping them down on arrival to fend for themselves under novel conditions will still persist until the pressure of public opinion force* the adoption of a real constructive policy.