Migrant Plan For S.I.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30216, 22 August 1963, Page 4

Migrant Plan For S.I.

"The Press" Special Service DUNEDIN, Aug. 21. A special immigration scheme to bring selected migrants straight into certain areas of the South Island, with a guarantee that they would work there for a stated period, was one of the ideas put forward today by representatives of the New Zealand Timber Merchants’ Federation at a meeting of the Otago Timber Merchants’ Association. Mr H. C. Smart, president of the federation, said it was gravely concerned about the apparent flight of the working force from areas of the South Island. It was prepared to lend its support to any scheme which would allow those areas to develop their potentialities. “Though the Government is to be commended for its action in declaring the West Coast a special area, there must be many South Island residents who believe that it has not gone far enough,’’

Mr Smart said. “Specific areas of Southland and Otago have just as much claim as the West Coast for special help.” Mr Smart suggested that South Island people and organisations would do well to get behind the following suggestions: That the Government or interested bodies should sponsor the migration of immigrants of selected trade or industrial groups to travel to areas in which accommodation and jobs were awaiting them, on the understanding that they should work in these areas for a stated time. That the Government should be prepared to extend to other South Island areas the advantages recently announced for the West Coast, particularly in subsidising new industry and plant. That new industries establishing near the sources of power in the South Island should be given preferential rates for electricity used in a production process. That some assistance should be given in transport costs to those industries which are in the South

Island, but which serve consumers in the north “The whole idea of the assisted immigration scheme is that prosperity and industry will come where the people are,” Mr Smart said. “To establish industry first "and then try to bring the people in is not always the right thing to do.” “At present there is ample evidence to suggest that people are moving from the south and west to assured jobs in the north with new industries there. Many opportunities and jobs in Southland and Otago are going begging—and this is merely accelerating the trouble.” Mr Smart said it would be a simple matter to specify that immigrants would come, not simply to New Zealand, but to Southland, Westland, or Otago. Living conditions there were often far better than in the homelands of the immigrants, and it was a fair assumption that after working for a while in their new homes the rpigrants would not want to go north. At the same time, the growth in population would bring its own bonus in the establishment of industries to serve the exjpanded home market