NEED FOR PLANNING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1945, Page 7

NEED FOR PLANNING

IMMIGRATION POLICY

LONG-RANGE SURVEY URGED Parliamentary Reporter. WELLINGTON, this day. The setting up of a special Parliamentary Committee to further continuously the need of adequate population for New Zealand, was advocated in a petition presented to the House of Representatives yesterday by Mrs. Hilda Ross (Nat, Hamilton), on behalf of the Dominion Settlement and Population Association (Inc.), of Wellington. The petition also suggested the appointment of a Royal Commission to make a complete long-range survey and prepare a comprehensive plan for securing and the settling as great a number of people from abroad as could be satisfactorily absorbed into the Dominion's social and economic life.

The petitioners claimed that the indications were that the demand by sparsely settled countries exceeded the supply of immigrants available, and suggested, therefore, that immediate steps should be taken to inaugurate a policy offering every reasonable inducement to new settlers from Europe and America, the qualifications being confined to age, health and character. Another suggestion was that a special population department of the Civi* Service should be set up with a fulltime director to deal with immigration and the natural increase in population.