Migrants assertion repeated

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32459, 20 November 1970, Page 14

Migrants assertion repeated

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, November 19. Sir James Doig, chairman of U.E.B. Industries, Ltd, tonight repeated his assertion that New Zealand is not receiving the hest calibre of British immigrants.

He was replying to a com-|; ment by Mr T. E. Skinner, i president of the Federation of t [Labour, who took Sir James . Doig to task for his state- i ment in Masterton earlier this i iweek that the only United I [Kingdom immigrants New i Zealand was getting here were “rats and mice.” i Many people would resent i Sir James Doig’s implication, i said Mr Skinner. Many re- I spected and esteemed citizens i occupying high position in < New Zealand industry were i of British stock. ( "I have to admit that the < use of the expression “rats i and mice” was an unfortu- i nate choice of words,” said Sir James Doig tonight. “It 1 was used as an ad lib during I a question-and-answer part of I the meeting and was not actu- i

ally part of my speech. : “What I said in my speech I was that economic and stan-dard-of-livjng conditions to--day in Britain are such that there is no great attraction for worth-while people to come to New Zealand. “This is a fact, and the net result is that good people do not have the same urge to emigrate to this country as they had a few years ago. We appear to be getting— at this stage of development—British immigrants who are not of the calibre that is beneficial to New Zealand’s progress. Make no mistake about it.” Sir James Doig said he was British to the core, but what he said at the meeting was the unfortunate truth of the situation existing at present.