The Press SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1938. Immigration Policy

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22419, 4 June 1938, Page 14

The Press SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1938. Immigration Policy

The report of the migration committee of the Five Million Club, of which some interesting passages were reproduced in “ The Press ” yesterday, is to be welcomed as a practical contribution to discussion of the immigration question . and to the working out of a policy of action. It is, in the first place, refreshing and encouraging to find that the report breaks with the old theory of immigration as a stream of new producers directed to the land—a theory which survives to stand in the way of a right approach to the problem. No analysis of agricultural conditions in New Zealand, covering the present stage and tendencies of land development. standards and methods of production. and market prospects, can possibly sanction an immigration policy designed to settle more people on the land and to increase primary production accordingly. The Five Million Club report reasonably accepts the indications of a future in which there will be greater expansion in the “ manufacturing, distributive. “ and entertainment industries ” than in farming, and in which, by consequence, the urban population will increase more rapidly than the rural. It accepts these indications, moreover, with less reluctance than hope, recognising that New Zealand will move in this way, with other countries in and outside the British Commonwealth. towards a more “ balanced economy.” It is important to realise that, while a policy of self-containment is for New Zealand a policy of impoverishment, a more populous New Zealand, with a greater industrial diversity and greater social resources, would be safer as well as richer. The objects of an immigration policy are not simply those of industrial recruitment, even in the widest sense. It is the Dominion’s social organisation, totally considered, that needs to be accelerated in a strengthening and completing process which immigration can powerfully assist. As for methods, the report cannot be said to recommend any extravagant ones. Educative work it puts first, and wisely so, since it is as necessary to conquer ignorance and prejudice and apathy as to show what can be done and to begin trying to do it. It places second modest schemes, “ collaterally ” designed: each would cover some one class of a number specified, such as domestic workers, retired families, farm labourers, skilled artisans, and so on. Third, it would follow from these experiments that larger schemes could be evolved and examined. This is a sane programme. If the Five Million Club adopts it and works as wisely as it has thought, no government will be able to resist the pressure or refuse co-operation.