EMPIRE MIGRATION

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 12

EMPIRE MIGRATION

Need to Lay Foundation MR. SAVAGE’S ATTITUDE By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, May 6. The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. M. J. Savage, referring to a cabled report that New Zealand organisations are appealing for resumption of migration, said that the question was one of the most important for discussion at the Imperial Conference. The Government was as interested as any organisation in an organised policy of migration. but its first duty was to the working man of New Zealand. “It is necessary to lay a foundation before encouraging others to come out to New Zealand,” he said. "Nobody can accuse us of sleeping on the job. There is unemployment in New Zealand at present, and we want new settlers to know they won’t have to fight to get work. It is generally found that when the condition of any country is attractive the problem of migration will solve itself.” The New Zealand Minister of Finance, Mr. IV. Nash, in an address at Bonar Law College on migration and Imperial trade, said that while there were still unemployed in New Zealand the Government could not consider bringing in additional workers under a general scheme. This did not mean that the door was closed, as particular schemes would be considered. For New Zealand to continue to progress, or even to hold her ground, she must find more overseas markets or build up her manufacturing industries. The Government hoped for a rational expansion of reciprocal trade, Mr. Nash added.