MIGRATION

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 260, 30 July 1937, Page 10

MIGRATION

Although the important j.nd urgent problem of migration appears to have been practically shelved by the Imperial Conference, the New Zealand delegation, according to the Prime Minister, made a statement of the Government’s own policy on the subject, and also conferred with the Secretary of State for the Dominions and the Overseas Settlement Board. In a nutshell, the policy laid down by Mr. Savage is that the measure of our immigration will depend upon the measure of the United Kingdom’s purchase of our primary products. No use, said Mr. Savage in effect, bringing people out io settle on the land if they cannot find a market for their produce. 'Consider the following statements, all made within the last 18 months:—■ “We have reached the stage in recovery when we must he prepared not only to receive, but warmly to invite, our kinsmen from England. . . . Australia cannot justify her position as long as she is not occupying her lands adequately. ” —Mr. Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, on March 24, 1936. “If we do not develop Canada, Australia and New Zealand, someone else will.”—Nir. Malcolm MacDonald,' Dominions Secretary, on January 26, 1937. , “We have not the human resources to do justice to this country. 11 — General Smuts, Deputy-Prime Minister of South Africa, on January 25, 1937. “You cannot forever defend empty territories. Our job is not merely to hold, but to occupy and develop the territories known as the British Commonwealth of Nations.” — Mr. Savage, Prime Minister of New Zealand, on February 26, 1937. What a contrast with the narrow view stated by Mr. Savage in his latest pronouncement I The unfortunate thing is that when Jhe Dominions at long last decide to invite immigrants from the United Kingdom there may be none to invite. The population of Britain is on the decline. The standard of living is slowly, but steadily, rising. As the security of life and comfort increases, the greater will be the reluctance on the part of the class of people we want to exchange such conditions for the risks attached to making a fresh start in a new country. . Under present restrictions, high costs, and excessive taxation, industry in this country can expand, if it does expand, only very slowly, and in the meantime there is a large deadweight of unemployment to be reduced. Closer settlement may. provide openings for proprietor and tenant farmers, but the mechanisation of farming may restrict the demand for agricultural workers. Under the necessity of paying high wages, the process of mechanisation may be accelerated. Yet we must face the fact that there can be no appreciable expansion of industries supplying the domestic market unless and until the number of consumers is very substantially increased., and little chiince of an easement of the general burden of taxation until we have, a much larger population over which to distribute the load. An immense amount of public capital has been invested in the construction of. railways and hydro-electric works, providing, it is estimated, facilities and services for a population of ten million people. It would take all that to bring them to full earning capacity, and justify the expenditure. They are being used by little over a million and a half people. To admit failure to occupy and develop our under-populated territories is to supply land-hungry nations with a reason for demanding either a share for their own exclusive use, or, at least, immigration rights. Until we are a thickly-peopled country we shall be a continual challenge and temptation to over-populated countries looking for room for expansion, and in a dangerously weak position to resist such a challenge if it should be made.