[PRESS ASSOCIATION.] TOURIST TRAFFIC AND IMMIGRATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 88, 13 April 1912, Page 9

[PRESS ASSOCIATION.] TOURIST TRAFFIC AND IMMIGRATION.

CO-OPERATION SUGGESTED. AUCKLAND, 12fch April. The suggestion for co-operation between^ the various Australian States and New Zealand in the matter of immigration and the fostering of the tourist traffic was made by Mr. Percy Hunter, Director of .Immigration for New South Wales, to a, reporter this morning." Mr. Hunter has been commissioned to reorganise various department*, especially in. connection with tourist matters, both in England and on the Continent. He is proceeding on hie mission by the Marania, calling at Auckland to-day. A new principle is being established in connection with the immigration movement. Mr. Hunter said hitherto the methods adopted have been somewhat haphazard, but now more careful selection is to be gone in for.. "Our Government," Mr. Hunter remarked, "is sending a skilled trades unionist abroad to select a number of skilled artisans who are urgently wanted for various branches of industry in Australia. We are' making big cJForts to fill the domestic servant market as well as to secure an adequate supply of artisan and^ farm labourers. The whole tendency of the system, Mr. Hunter bitted, was to work more along Fedeial lines. In the past work had to ib great extent been duplicated, and part of his undertaking was to bring various agencies more together. By a decision of the recent Premiers.' Conference, the various States had adopted uniform immigration rates, which was a big step in the direction desired. Ho thought New, Zealand might participate in this connection with beneficial results. "This ha« already been done to a large extent with tourist departments," said Mr. Hunter. "When I was in England last year I came into touch with Mr. Donne, who is probably the greatest touiist enthusiast New Zealand has ever had or its, perhaps, likely to h*ave, and we^ arranged to work together a lot abroad. This applies moru especially in connection with the improvement of the Pacific steamer service." Mr. Hunter expressed the opinion that tha new 13,000-ton boat that the Union Company is putting on would prove a good magnet to a big tourist traffic from America. The service would also attract numbers of people who would otherwise travel via tho Suez Canal. This, of course, was much to the advantage of New Zealand.