Empire Settlement.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17060, 3 February 1921, Page 6

Empire Settlement.

The action of the Colouial Office in arranging the Conference now sitting in London to consider the big question of Empire settlement, and to organise! British emigration to the Dominions, is a reminder that in the early days of settlement, before the present selfgoverning colonies received their constitutions, the Colonial Office took a very keen interest in the matter of populating the new possessions, and, even in the case of New Zealand, proved a very helpful friend to the New Zealand Company organised to settle this country on the principles of colonisation laid down by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. In later years, emigration was left almost entirely to the enterprise of the colonies concerned, and thence developed tiho system of attracting new population, really by enticement. Now, the Colonial Office is reverting to its, original policy of taking an active and helpful part dn the process. The present Conference is apparently treating the matter on broad lines, and with the co-operation of the Dominions wanting more people, some satisfactory and adoquate scheme should be developed. The representatives of the Dominions -will no doubt insist that in the flow of a new population from the Old Country the wishes of the Dominion affected shall bo consulted. The quality of a population-is of more consequence than its strength in mere numbers, and tihe conditions and capacities of each oversea possession will require a difference of treatment in the selection of its new settlers. As far as New Zealand is concerned, this phase will receive due attention. Sir James Allen may be trusted to see to it that no feature of the new Imperial scheme will prove unacceptable in its application here. A large question was raised by the Hon. E. D. Millen, who represented Austra- . lia. This was, in effect,- that the Imperial Government should help to boar the cost of access facilities, railways, and soon, for the settlement of British emigrants in remote districts overseas, where land was available but very little else. The proposal is still under discussion, but it is most unlikely that the British Government will agree to it.

Such a plan, in a vast and sparselysettled country like Australia, would undoubtedly be of great help in increasing settlement, and its value in New Zealand, even with a much more limited area of.available land, would be considerable. But there is littel prospect of back-country railways and branch lines being built here at the expense of the British Government. The now settlers will have to make the best of the existing facilities, with the hope of further, development in the future.