The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1940. ENGLISH CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 159, 6 July 1940, Page 8

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

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1940. ENGLISH CHILDREN.

th< initiir thai n:cl-s 'ir,c"tanec, | /nr thr. irrntif/ that r(c<is rcsintmoe, i l '/r the futiirr in ;he rfint<ince. ,1 n'l the ,7r.rnl lhat tre rnrr i/f>.

"\\ <• ;i:.• -u; liyij tiiiif men from | tio D.iinmi.iiw .iii.l arc; exporting i l > i ii 1 iiri: 11::i• 1111s (hi; host of our I ; 1 1 ' I"ill's ilindilo blessing the M'-'.v i' ( Mimi'v v i'l lif ti>i' ever in the <:<-ht <>; ii.'r <l.''^liti-r-l)wminions." tin' I mler-Secrctary for the I in: n>n Mr. Shakespeare, told 1 1' 1 ' lion-" Commons this week, ■i i" I li'oia all -nil'- of the llou-e I'.'llai' oilier I'll ><| '.IVI! t expressions Ot" .ural it ii'Ji' Siic-li' ex|ires-ioiis should ii"' i-.'itt-c New Zealandcrs great plea -ttri', I'nr the simple truth is that there i.-; a great- deal more which they could do, and which they ought lo do, both in Britain's interests and in the Dominion's.

I i,<■ New Zealand Government, alter making preliminary inquiries, 11 -i 1 ft erfi I tn take 'J'iUU Englii-il I'iiililren whose parents I'ave decided I hat they would be safer out of England than in it. Hard as the decision nm-t have been in many homes, it must be judged a wise one. In Xew Zealand hundreds of people have been prompt to respond to an appeal, made on both humanitarian and patriotic* grounds, that they should provide for the children on their arrival. No doubt if there are later appeals the response will be equnlly warm. But should not we in New Zealand take a longer and larger view of the matter? Is it not a great opportunity, the outcome of circumstances which we trust will never recur, to make a large and permanent addftion to our population 1 No one can pretend to predict the circumstances which will beset us when this war is over, but it is reasonable to expect that there will then arise, for many reasons, a movement for the better distribution of the people of the British Commonwealth. There aro too many in the United Kingdom, far too few in the Dominions.

"For years," said Mr. W. 11. Hughes this week, u I have been telling the people of Australia that the reservoirs of our national life were running low. I have told them that in a little while we should become a stagnant people, and then, aftei- poising for a moment oil the edge of the abyss, we should go slithering down into extinction. All this, of course, is the truth, and the terrifying iinpl'cationa of it come home to us now. What we want is more people, but not any kind of people, the right kind of people. The best migrant is now, as it always was, the Australian baby of British stock. As for the rcet, British migrants of the right kind are the stuff out of which this nation ha.-* been built. We cannot have too many o£ them. . .

What Mr. Hughes said of Australia is equally true of New Zealand. Everybody knows of the need, though never before has it been appreciated so keenly by so many people. And never before has the incentive to send British children to the Dominions been so strong. Herein lies the opportunity. It is an opportunity to organise, carefully but without delay, a migration of British children who will not be adopted "for the duration," but will come to' New Zealand to remain and grow up as New Zealanders. If, 'after the war, tho parents of many ot' them also wish to come to New Zealand, they will have the best of all reasons for coming. It is an opportunity also to bring to New Zealand children who will bo a representative cross-section of the United Kingdom population. Some will have to be fully maintained; for others the means of maintenance will be gladly forthcoming. All of them will—in Mr. Shakespeare's words —"form contact and make friendships overseas, and the bonds of Empire will be strengthened beyond all severance."

In the past, whenever migration has been advocated, there have been many objections. "The time is not ripe." "They will take jobs from New jSealanders." The position now is that New Zealand cannot afford not to take extraordinary measures both to foster the natural increase of its population and to increase it by immigration. As to the employment (or unemployment) argument, it is not applicable if the immigrants are children. There are gaps in our population to-day, in the age groups of children. By filling them from without we should not be creating an abnormal situation later, but restoring the population to what it would have been had it not been for the disastrous fall in the birth rate.