The Begg Plan

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20978, 5 October 1933, Page 8

The Begg Plan

Dr. Campbell Begg's scheme for settling 1,000,000 immigrants in New Zealand in the next 15 years, described in "The Press" this morning, will cause some astonishment. And evidently Dr. Begg intends that it should. "We want something "big and daring," he says, "some- " thing that will set the imagination "of the people on fire and rouse " them like the blast of a trumpet." This comes queerly from the leader of an organisation opposed to party politics and contemptuous of the methods of party politicians. Angling for public support with "big " and daring " schemes is one of the oldest and most discredited of political tricks. It is one, moreover, which has been very expensive for New Zealand. It seems probable, however, that Dr. Begg's scheme will offend the common sense of the people more than it stirs their imagination. On its financial side it is so fantastic as to be hardly 'worth examination. It is perhaps sufficient to point out that Dr. Begg assumes without question that a reduction in the country's interest burden would enable it to carry a larger population. That assumption is fallacious. Reduction in the interest burden might release capital for absorbing immigrants in public works and agriculture. But Dr. Begg himself admits that existing public utilities are sufficient for twice the present population. Moreover, it is one thing to> settle men on the land and quite another to find a market for their produce. The present indications are that New Zealand may shortly find herself with export surpluses of all primary commodities except wool, so that to push ahead with closer settlement schemes would be mere recklessness. To say that New Zealand's "estimated "population capacity" is 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 is to say nothing at all. No doubt 20,000,000 people could maintain life in New Zealand; but they would not do much more. Assuming, however, that it is desired to maintain the present standard of living and that no radical change in the country's economic organisation is contemplated, it does not seem that New Zealand is capable of absorbing any large number of immigrants in the immediate future.