The Press. WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1913. THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14659, 7 May 1913, Page 8

The Press. WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1913. THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM

Sir Rider Haggard in Australia, has omphasised the points ho made here, first as to tho need of encouraging immigration if thoso oversea Dominions are. to hold their own, and secondly, as to the futility of expecting that there is at Homo, for us to draw upon, a.n unlimited supply of skilled young agricultural labourers, and "young women " in the first flush and bloom , of youth" possessing all tho virtues looked for but seldom realised in tho typical domestic servant. The delusions on this point which prevail among tmtravelled New Zoalandors are not shp-ed by thoso who havo recently paid a visit to tho Mother Country and havo kept their oyes oj>en. For years there has been a steady drift of young men from tho country into tho towns. A few of tho old typo of skilled agricultural labonrors remain, but they are getting past work, and there is no younger generation to take their place. Tho smartest and most enterprising of their sons leavo tho farm and take, up work in tho tortTis; those that remain are mostly of a dull and inert type who aro either too lazy or too unintelligent to learn tho niceties of their work and to take the interest in it that their fathers showed. There is also a dearth of good domestic servants willing to try their fortunes overseas. lit England as in New Zealand tho spread of national education has had tho effect <>t" inducing many girls who formerly would havo becoino domestic servants to seek positions as typists, shop as-

«.istant.s ami other light occupations, ■where they have inoro liberty than in household service. Although the wages ■ paid aro not so high as in Xtnv Zealand, middle-class families in England aro almost as much perplexed by tho scarcity of good domestic J servants as they are here. .And from ~ all parts of rural England there goes tip a complaint of the scarcity of really capable farm labourers, with the result | that agriculture- is diminishing and ; more land is being laid down in grass. What, then, is to bo done? -Uoro , population is urgently needed. Our > industries are languishing, as the , figures wo have been publishing show j only too plainly, and want of labour — j and especially of boy and girl labour — is one of the principal causes. -New ] Zealand, on the whole, is prospering, i but its progress is slow compared "with that of Canada, which years ago saw i tho need of population to develop tho j resources of the country, and has its , agents everywhere— not only in Kng- ■ land, bub on the Continent of J-urope— , securing the best colonists that are to bo found. So far «.« Australia is concerned, tho problem, as Sir -Rider Haggard points out, is even more vital j than here, becniiso the natural existence of tho Island Continent a& a " White Man's Country" depends upon its .success in tho filling tip of some or »tho "vacant spaces" which Sir Charle3 Lucas thinks have had such a potent effect, in shaping the national character. As far as possible, of course, we must continue our efforts by means of tho higher wages offered here to attract j such trained agricultural labourers ami j domestic servants as are willing to > come out to New Zealand. Hut it>j seems to us that Sir Rider Haggard has j given us tho truo key to the problem j when he suggests that wo should encourage the immigration of likely lads and lasses. Wo have frequently referred to tho blind alley occupations in England—those occupations which, give very fair pay to a boy until ho is about 1G or 17, wliO7i lie is turned adrift, and usually goes to swell tho. competition in tho ranks of unskilled labour. Sir Rider HagI gard tolls us that many of tho people in tho English cities, camo in their youth from tho country, and he submits that young children who had, after all, corao from the stock which was from tho land, would, if brought to another country and again placed lon tho land, soon grow up most useful I citizens. Evidence has been given beI fore the Imperial Trade- Commissioners to tho effect that thoso children who liavo bean born in towns make the J smartest .and most useful colonists. That view is, wo think, borno out even by our limited experience of tho "Sedgwick boys." In general intelligence and '"cuteness" it would be difficult to beat a London errand-boy, and it seems a great ■ pity that his powers of adaptability should not ho', givon a fair field. Thoro aro many boy* aud. girls of good character and capablo parts in England who would bo greatly benefited if they were 'transplanted in tho colonies, ablo to grow up in a bettor environment. . Wo should benefit by tho arrangement, becaliso these young immigrants, being still at an impressionable age, can be more readily moulded to colonial requirements. Wo hope, therefore, that tho Government, in carrying out their immigration policy, will give a further trial to the Sedgwick scheme and similar plans for giving boys and girls who find themselves crowded out of employment in England a chance among tho freer opportunities of tho Dominions oversea.