Immigration Officer For Chch?

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32119, 15 October 1969, Page 16

Immigration Officer For Chch?

Christchurch may have its own immigration officer in London next year, according to the Mayor (Mr A. R. Guthrey). He said last evening that he had discussed the position with the president and director of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association (Messrs J. D. Bull and R. T. Alston), and he agreed with them that special steps should be taken to encourage immigration to Christchurch. Not only was there no real unemployment in Christchurch at present, but there was a danger of over-employ-ment returning, said Mr Guthrey. This in turn would inflate manufacturing costs and reduce the level of pro-

dyctivity, and lose New Zealand the edge that it now had on the Australian manufacturer. There were now six or seven times as many vacancies in Christchurch as there were men looking for work, and employers were spending hundreds of dollars advertising for staff. This money, Mr Guthrey

said,, might be better spent contributing' to the costs of having an employment officer in London for a year or longer. The Canterbury Manfacturers’ Association seemed to think that there were potential immigrants In Australia and that it might be worth while to send an employment officer there, he said. Their reasoning was that New Zealanders who had*gone over there might now have become disillusioned, and that increasing costs in Australia might make New Zealand more attractive to Australian workers.

Mr Guthrey said, however, that he doubted if much success could be gained in Australia in view of the much higher wages paid there, and there was no doubt that Aus tralia was an exciting country, especially for younger workers. He felt that the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, offered much better prospects. Asked if the proposal meant that he was dissatis-

fled with the work of New Zealand House in London, Mt Guthrey said he believed that a specific invitation for workers to come to Christchurch would be more likely to succeed than a general immigration programme. A Christchurch representative would be able to give prospective immigrants much more precise and detailed information. Mr Guthrey had said that the planned development of Christchurch depended on steady growth, and immigration would be necessary to keep it up. In view of the city’s need, would the city contribute to the cost of the Christchurch immigration officer, or would this be left entirely to the manufacturers? The difficulty here, Mr Guthrey replied, was that the whole of Christchurch was involved, and the metropolitan area could not be expected to contribute on its own. He thought his council would contribute if the others did, but he had some doubts that they would.