Accommodation For Migrants

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26264, 8 November 1950, Page 6

Accommodation For Migrants

When Mr McCombs said in the House of Representatives last week that he did not think the Army and Navy barracks areas at Lyttelton were “good enough to welcome “ people coming to New Zealand ”, he probably misjudged the suit* ability of this proposed immigration reception centre as much as he misjudged the temper New Zealand should seek in its new settlers. It is easier to agree with the Minister of Labour (Mr Sullivan) that when £13,000 has been spent on improving these buildings they will provide suitable accommodation for 200 persons. Good, clean quarters and good, wholesome food must be provided for the reception of immigrants; luxurious temporary quarters would only give the newcomers a false idea of the living standards of a young country. Immigrants will themselves agree that available building resources should not be wasted on housing them in luxury while* they are waiting to begin their new lives in earnest. This country needs and encourages new settlers; but it is not unreasonable to expect them to do without a little of the customary comforts of New Zealand for a few weeks or months until they have established themselves. It is also not unreasonable to believe that immigrants who cheerfully accept some inconvenience in a pioneering spirit will later make the best citizens. It is unfortunately true that immigrants with this pioneering spirit are not coming forward as freely as they were< a few years ago, when Mr MdCombs’s Government declined to give more than a handful any sort of welcome at all. Mr McCombs and his colleagues were then so obsessed with the difficulty

of finding some place “ good enough “to welcome people coming to the “ Dominion ” that they failed to realise how great a part an influx of vigorous and enterprising men and women could play in solving New Zealand’s economic problems, including the housing shortage. It is no longer possible to find so many people of all descriptions wishing to come to New Zealand, and the new Government’s difficulty is probably almost as much in finding suitable prospective settlers as it is in finding accommodation for them.