Empire Settlements

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 144, 21 June 1922, Page 11

Empire Settlements

Greater All-round Development.

To Find Room For Greater Numbers.

(By "Autos.")

It seems at last to have become clear both, to Britain and to the Overseas Dominions of the British Empire that to our own British race the one sure solution of the terrible problem of mere living to-day is the better distribution of our people among the lands under the ■common flag. Unemployment in the Motherland has continued now "for "two... full years, .with little prospect of any immediate substantial reduction in the numbers. When the New Zealander re: alises that the host of unemployed in Great Britain exceeds the total popula- ■; tion—men, women, and children—of his own country—a million and a quarter—: he would only stand aghast. New-. Zea-. land has her own unemployed, but for every one heTe there are literally hundreds in the' Old Country. It is also true that lack of work and -wages in tint' country, which is the chief market for our products, is also the direct cause of what little distress, comparatively, there is here. . Prices of our meat, wool, butter, and cheese have all slumped because there are fewer, people in England and Scotland who can affoi-d to buy. them. As a corojlary, we cannot purchase so much of what produces in the way of manufactures, and that- brings about more unemployment in the manufacturing country. And so the vicious circle proceeds in a descending spiral of .the standard of living. EUROPE HAS- BAILED—TRY-THE EMPIRE. This is how it appears to a New Zealander, who from, his remoteness halfway round the world can view things, >as it were, in long perspective, calmly and without prejudice.. For nearly three, years now Mr. Uoydi George and the statesmen who guide the destinies of the Empire have, striven hard to rectify the errors of the Peace of Versailles and bring, back economic order and industry to a. 6tricken Eiirope. The efforts of the British Prime Minister have commanded all:the while the utmost respect and admiration from the people at this' end. It would seem, if anybody could succeed in creating order out of chaos, he could. Yet so far hennas failed; or, at the best, his success has been so qualified and limited as hardly to affect the situation at all. The attitude of the Australasian to the interminable "Conferences" is apt to be impatient; he feels like thefAmencan, and would express his .feeling Toughly in crude language: "To hell with "Europe; let.them stew in their own juice. It's no use trying to:put. their house in order; why not.try our own? You have spent hundreds of millions in Russia and lost it; you have invested \ enormous capital outside the Empire, j and let your people go outside, too. You may lose both. Why not give ue a tarn now "• i '.■ ■ ■ BEGINNING OF BETTER THINGS. The answer comes in the .Empire Settlement Act, which is welcomed sincerely in Australasia, as, at any rate s a beginning of better things. Unorganised migration is always subject to the fluctuations in the labour market, and, while Australia and' New Zealand must take their share of the blame'for past failures' by neglecting to organise settlement at this end, there is a. great deal to be said for a refusal tOyollow" dumping " of immigrants. So far«'as ,New Zealand is concerned, the attempts at organising the movement of the people from England and their reception here have been distinctly encouraging, and the comparatively. small numbers—about 10,000 a year—have been handled with a very high proportion of success. The prevailing depression at the present time, and the Government's lack, of finance, and a general policy of retrenchment have, however, resulted in a considerable restriction of immigration: ONE SUCCESS OF ORGANISATION. ' Not for nearly half a century has New Zealand had a:.;/ 'really organised system of colonisation, yet this is the one country of the Empire which was'the bright example of systematic colonisation in the beginning. Over eighty years ago Edward Gibbon Wakefield laid down certain definite principles, which were followed in the settlement of New Zealand in the 'forties of the last century. Wakefield believed in colonisation by communities thoroughly representative, of the mother community from which they were drawn. Wellington was settled by the New Zealand Company with selected immigrants in due ■ proportions of tillers of the soil, mechanics, artisans, teachers, merchants, officials—all that were required to establish a self-supporting and self-contained community in civilised life. The example, was followed in the settlement of Canterbury, Nelson, Otago, and Taranaki, and to this day those parts of. New Zealand bear the strong imprint of family names and local, char? acteristics of the birthplaces of their founders. To this solid foundation of good British stock in definite communities may be fairly ascribed also the political stability of this Dominion—the most English of all parts of the Empire. GOLD PROM WITHIN AND AND WITHOUT. . The quickest, if not the' most satisfactory, way. of increasing the population of an otherwise empty part of the Empire, is to discover gold. Modern Australia, really dates from the Victorian gold rushes' of the 'fifties, when the population of the Island Continent doubled itself. The period came, ten years later in New Zealand. The Government of the Colony had realised the attraction gold has for people, and offered a substantial reward for the first finder of payable gold. Gold was found, and between 1861 and 1865 the population 'more than doubled itself. The number of arrivals in the country was itadf nearly 10.000 ereater than in an.v

As it Affects New Zealand.

five-year period since.. But gold rushes are '-born, not made, and, though they may populate a country, for a. time, some other means must be. found.,to, get' and keep the people when the. gold begins to peter out. The means adopted in NewZealand originated with^Sir. JuTius.Vogel, Premier in the; ■ 'seventies;; whose,, reputation as a, nation-builder^ is beginning to shine ; through .the obloquy cast on his name in .the, bad times" of' the 'eighties and ' nineties, as one 'who plunged—his into" debts :'it' could , hardly, meet.,".:;" The,.:' Vogel Government borrowed .huge;.Bjims~fof.so small a country-then—and- went in for. a vast system.'..'6f--pub"lid'.'.''works/'.building railways, making, roads.and bridges, and generally developing the country.' ■ ■'-'■■■■■- ■'■AIibBD.'IMraGEATI6:N.;-:'.'';-'I-".V To find the labour.a system'of' aided immigration was devised; and in the five years from 1871 .to\'lß7s .the 'excess- of arrivals over departures for New Zealand was 31,945, arid between 1876" and 1880, 54,787—a total in ten yearsXof 136,733. In 1871sthe population was 256,393 and in 1881 489,933, so that'again the "population nearly doubled. The greatest number of immigrants, "arrived* -in 1674—52,118-^-and the-excess of arrivals over departures in that year, was several times greater than it" has been" in any sue-ceeding-year from 1880 to the present day. Thus in 1674 and 1875, 52,488 assisted immigrants arrived jn New Zealand—a greater number than any succeeding ten years. From 1871 to 1884 free passages were granted to immigrants in the majority of cases. From 1892 to 1903 no assistance was given to immigration. The total number of assisted im migrants to date is about 170,000,'0f whom all but about 4000 came from the United Kingdom. During the present century fewer than 50,000 have come to New Zea\ land with assisted passages. The largest number in apy single year of this period was 5148, in'l9l3. OUR PRESENT MAXIMUM. ..,' From the-data already given, soroS valid and,; one hopes, valuable conclusions ..may.,.be. drawn. „ First,; ihafc in normal times^-as between 1904 and" 1914 —New Zealand can absorb, without seriously dislocating the labour market" here, about 5000 assisted immigrants annually. The . number in 1920 ■ wa* ■ 4075,v0f a total immigration from ttiei Motherland of 12,340. Probably the maximum total immigration, .assisted and unassisted, that could be absorbed with the existing machinery "would be 10,000 annually. S° small a number, would be of negligible value in-diminish' ing unemployment and. surplus; populal . tion in Britain. Yet in' 1874 New Zealand, with a population of 300,000, was able to'" receive "32,000 assisted "iinmi-' grants, and • next, year 20,000, or :.at.tho rate ; of something like 10.per cent.' of the population' per, year. ."At'that "rate th« number annually in these years, with, a population of 1,250,000, should be over 100,000. What is the explanation of the difference? This: That in the 'seventies a vast system of development was inprogress capable of utilising such increases in the numerical strength, of -labour. Since then the development 'has been" far more: gradual -and, indeed) far less systematic. It has been piecemeal rather than broadly planned and executed. Progress has been slow, if sure. Had the system of the "'seventies been"f carried out, New Zealand might have had more than double-her present population, with A corresponding stage in development. : -:"'" CREATING'NEw/'LAND:""" ~"' ■ The argument, of course, cannot without further statement be pressed to>the' conclusion that New Zealand 6hould taka a hundred thousand immigrants from Britain every year. Much of the development, needed for the country has been" done. Netf Zealand-is fairly well supplied with lines and. means of •communication. The country—land suitable, .for- farming—has." also;; been '"well; settled, and.there is absolutely no scope for such-large community settlements as' are proposed for Australia, Canada, arid" • Africa. The only real extension of farming must be over, land reclaimed from swamps, or over poor land, gum or pumice, " fertilised and prepared on a large scale. Already" signal success his' been achieved in the reclamation of swamps in the Piako and Whakatane districts; where upwards of 150,000 acres of- useless swamps "havo been" brought into^ highly profitable use. , There are similar areas-' as large in' other parts o£ New Zealand. Pumice "and giim lands cover hundreds of thousands of acres, and^ require^ heavy expense, expert handlmg, and much labour to be made productive.;,;. These are works not so much for community settlement as for public enterprise directed like an-anny' in a word, they are public worki MORE RAILWAYS YET. ;: Etxisting railways are not paying in. New Zealand to-day,, but more must bo built in.many directions before the conntry can be fully developed. As for' roads, a system of national main' hijthways is to beadopted, and arterial roids made and improved. Among other public works the principal one is that of the construction of hydro-electric stations in different parts; of the. Dominion'-to de- v velop the abundant resources of water-" power which New Zealand possesses, A start has been made with this work. Public works of the kinds described would, undoubtedly, be carried out at once if the capital and labour were only available. The question is this: Has Britain enough spare capital to send out, as it were,, with the'labour of the immigrants to enable such works.. to bo started and to give employment to the immigrant when he arrives I ~~~