POPULATION FOR NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22465, 28 July 1938, Page 5

POPULATION FOR NEW ZEALAND

* PLANNED MIGRATION URGED MR A. LEIGH HUNT’S VIEWS Asserting that every disability from which New Zealand' is suffering was caused by lack of population of the right type, Mr A. Leigh Hunt, of the Dominion Settlement Association, Wellington, advocated planned migration as the only remedy, in an address sponsored by the Christchurch Rotary Club last evening. The haphazard migration of the past was of no use, he said. The new immigrants would have to be of the right type. - character, and age, and they would have to come to the Dominion at the right time, to jobs already provided for them. With them would have to come British capital, brains, and technicians for industry. Britain to-day, he said, was still greatly overcrowded, and could supply many suitable immigrants. If New Zealand did not take British migrants now, in a few years there would be neither migrants nor help. It was now or never. He • disagreed with those who believed that other than British immigrants. could be obtained from Europe. Every man would be required at home in Europe for defence. Germany and Italy would not provide population for New Zealand. “We believe that this country can take from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 more people. Wc think we ought to start taking in from 50,000 to 100,000 a year. That may sound ambitious; but it is an urgent matter. People who say all the good land is taken up are saying that New Zealand is fully populated with 15 people a square mile.” The Deputy-Mayor (Mr J. S. Barnett) presided. A resolution in favour of planned migration, and immediate action, was passed by the meeting.