AN ADVOCATE OF IMMIGRATION

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21990, 14 January 1937, Page 3

AN ADVOCATE OF IMMIGRATION

“MEANS TO GREATER PROSPERITY” DOMINION’S PROGRESS IN NINETY YEARS [THE PRESS Special Service,] WESTPORT, January 13. That New Zealand, along with Australia and Africa should take immediate steps to increase her population in order to bring about greater prosperity is the opinion of the Hon. C. S. Knight, a member of the Northern RhodesiaLegislative Council who, with Mrs Knight, is on a holiday tour of the Dominion and Australia. At the same time, Mr Knight said when interviewed at Westport to-night that he was amazed at the cities and the general development of New Zealand in the short space of 90 years. Africa could show nothing like it, although the white people had been there for hundreds of years. Northern Rhodesia is a Crown colony governed from London and Mr Knight is one of the nine elected members of the Legislative Council, which includes the Executive Council and acts in an advisory capacity to the Governor, o “I would like to transfer your representative form of government to Rnodesia,” said Mr Knight, “because the present control. of the country is not satisfactory. Everything, eyen_ the arrangement of minor municipal ana domestic matters, has to be done from Downing street. We are endeavouring to join in with Southern Rhodesia, where there is a representative government, and that will probably come about eventually. At present we elected legislative councillors really have no power. We can hick up a row about anything we don’t like, but that is about all.” . ■ ■ ' _ Expressing the view that New Zealand should support a greater population and should manufacture her own requirements to a very large extent, Mr Knight said that when travelling through the North Island, he had been struck by the smallness of the number of people working on the land. He said that New Zealand exported the greater part of her primary : products to feed people in England who worked to manufacture goods in turn imported into New Zealand. Why . could not those people come to live in New Zealand where they would still consume foodstuffs at present exported and where their labour would be' available to build up manufacturing industries? At the same time, an increase in population would provide more, consumers for manufactured goods and would thus enable mass production and lower costs. If New Zealand continued along the old lines, the logical result would be a dwindling population ending up with a few farmers and the Maoris. - Exotic and Native Trees Mr Knight, who is managing director of Zambesi Sawmills, Ltd., the largest timber firm in Central Africa, said habhad not as yet been able to see much of the milling industry in New Zealand, but he favourably commented on reafforestation, signs of which he had seen in plantations in various parts of the North Island. He understood that almost exclusive preference was being given to the planting of exotic trees but questioned the advisability of selecting exotics rather than native trees of proved tim-ber-producing quality. Exotics might be all right for box making, but it bad yet to be proved that they would in New Zealand produce suitable building and joining timbers capable of taking the place of native woods. Kenya in Africa had similarly experimented with exotic trees, but was now questioning the wisdom of not concentrating on trees native to the country. Describing New Zealand as a wonderful country, Mr Knight said he had been greatly impressed with the tourist attractions he had already seen. New Zealand roads, he said, , were splendid and he was pleased to note that they were being still further improved at various points.