IMMIGRATION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22445, 5 July 1938, Page 16

IMMIGRATION

TO TUB EDITOB OF THIS PRESS. Sir, —In your leading article in today’s issue, you criticise the Government for not embarking on a policy of free immigration, such as the Mas-sey-Coates Government promoted at the public expense. The workers here were taxed to pay the passages of immigrants, who competed with them for jobs, and although their labour was less efficient, they were employed in preference to the natives because they were cheaper. The scheme was disastrous. Many of the immigrants left New Zealand and went back to Great Britain. As the late Lord Rutherford said, the British people did not want to emigrate Their bitter experiences with the Dominions have cured them of their wanderlust. You are now advocating the immigration of Europeans. Your objects are transparent; you want to secure cheap labour for employers and to inflate land values in the interest of land speculators; that is the inevitable effect of increased population. You will cite the Arbitration Court as a safeguard against wage reductions, but if the National Parly Is returned to power again, as you desire, all the awards will be suspended again. Most of the immigrants would be employed in the rural industries as farm labourers, and these are not protected by awards at all. When the labour market is overstocked low wages are the result, which only benefit a small minority at the expense of the common people. But since “The Press” is the mouth organ of special privilege and monopoly, you must discredit the Government by any means, no matter whether it is, fair or foul. You support a party that has descended to the methods of the political scavenger. Here is a specimen of its propaganda from the National Party circular to its candidates: “Oppose, Oppose, Oppose. That is the essential duty of Nationalist speakers. Use every possible play of words, every fact you can advance, to show Hurt your political opponents are fools, political hypocrites, opportunists, seekers of power, despots, traitors to their own class, to their country, or their Empire." Comment is needless. All the policies that you advocate are in the interest of the select few that you are paid to serve. —Yours, etc., F. W. BOURKE. July 1, 1938.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TRESS. Sir, —The remarks of Mr Savage on the subject of immigration as‘published in “The Press” on Friday are not what one would expect from a Prime Minister. “If we try to bring people here without planning in advance, we will merely be repeating the inanities of the past.” This kind of remark is fashionable amongst Cabinet Ministers just now—a vague reference to the sins of the past, usually coupled with an equally vague statement of what the Government will do “when the moment is opportune.” This being a young country, eveiyone in it is either himself an immigrant or the descendant of an immigrant, attracted here by those same inanities. It may even be remembered that many of the members of Mr Savage’s Government. are themselves immigrants, who came here without any government “planning in advance.” As a guide to the possibilities of future immigration, a study of the past may not bo fruitless. Why did people come to Now Zealand at all? There was no forced immigration (as in the early days of Australia), so our immigrants must have had some reason to believe life in New Zealand to be more desirable, or the opportunities fof advancement greater, than in their country of birth.

Before the war, when the tide of immigration was strongest, we find that the burden of taxation, both government and local body, was light, and the interference or participation in business by the Government was comparatively small. The scope for private enterprise was as wide as possible, and prosperity was steadily increasing among all classes of the community. Is it to be wondered that with those conditions there was a steady stream of enterprising people anxious to share in and benefit by them? They needed no planned policy to bring them here. They came on their own initiative, attracted by the prospects of freedom and profit. Contrast the conditions of the country then with the present burden of government and the restrictions upon enterprise and trade, and the reason why people will not come to New Zealand is immediately apparent. Neither people nor capital from abroad will voluntarily submit themselves to our present-day regimentation and taxation. No amount of planning will alter the facts—the world is too wellinformed.—Yours, etc., SPECTATOR. July 3, 1938.