Migration Subsidies Under Review

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32119, 15 October 1969, Page 1

Migration Subsidies Under Review

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 14. The Immigration Department was examining the possibility of giving employers more assistance in interviewing and selecting migrants under the immigration subsidy scheme, the Minister of Immigration (Mr Shand) said in Parliament tonight.

Replying to Mr J. F. Luxton (Nat., Piako), the Minister said the Government had set a target for this year of 3000 immigrants. Of these 2500 would come under the subsidy scheme by which employers undertook their own recruitment and the fares were subsidised by the Government, he said. The other 500 migrants from the United Kingdom would be brought Out under direct Government auspices. The target for assisted immigrants would be filled, but the response to the subsidy scheme had been disappointing, Mr Shand said. As well as examining the possibility of giving employers more assistance, the department was studying means by which employers who were not in a position to visit the United Kingdom to undertake their own recruitment would be able to make greater use of the offices of the department in New Zealand House. Mr Shand told Mr Luxton that farm workers were eligible for selection under the scheme. Special attention had been paid to farm workers for many years, and this would continue.

The best prospects appeared to be an expansion of the subsidy scheme, so that farmers in New Zealand would make their own contacts,