CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 83, 8 April 1943, Page 4

CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS

IMMIGRATION —"NOT

CONSIDERED"

To The Editoi"

An Auckland friend has sent me a copy of your leader under this heading. I agree with it. We all need "to do some hard and honest thinking" about the future of New Zealand, which future is not limited - to the rehabilitation of the soldier, or even to that of the people as a whole. The creation of a greater Dominion, "of a nation," should be our aim; and the foundation of such must, as you say, be a larger population. We can do much, I think, to stimulate the natural increase of our own people, but we need migrants from outside as well. It is regrettable that we have to spend so much time in general advocacy of immigration when the real problem is the source or sources from which new citizens are to be gained Any plan for the post-war expansion of the Dominion should cover this difficult question. May I give one word of caution to those who press upon the public attention the need of immigration? It is not wise to speak of large numbers in the way some do. How many immigrants we can take, say, in a year, or over a period of years, depends upon the scope of the general plan for the Dominion. And no one is ready yet with anything approaching a complete plan. Perhaps the Government will set to work on the tentative beginnings of one. Or the Nationalist party—perhaps. W. E. BARNARD, Napier.