IMMIGRATION

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 62, 15 March 1927, Page 5

IMMIGRATION

VAEIOUS VIEWS

POPULATION NEEDED

BISHOP OF LONDON SPEAKS

(By Telegraph.) (Special ta "The Evening Post.") CHEISTCHURCH, This Day. The Bishop of London yesterday addressed a conference called to discuss immigration from the Old Country to New Zealand. Mr. J. E. Strachan, president of the Canterbury Progress League, presided over an attendance of about rinety persons interested in the subject. The chairman said that ir view of the Empire's crisis the subject was of the highest importance. The Bishop of London had an international standing in respect to immigration, and the Bishop wished to hear a free and frank discussion. The Bishop of London said that a short time ago he had spoken to a I man who came .to New Zealand with his mother in 1881, and who said that on arrival he was booed by the crowd. Nothing that those interested in the present movement would do would harm New Zealand*' AH he felt was pure love and affection for this daughter of the Mother Country. He had seen too much of the poverty and overcrowding in the east of London to wish to see the same conditions anywhere else. He had seeu something of the comfortable conditions here, and he would not do anything to spoil them. It was strongly desired that there should be good feeling between the different parts of the Empire. He felt that New Zealand needed a population. The only guarantee of prosperity was the silent power, of Great Britain behind the country. Prosperity in these parts of the Empire depended upon the strength, support, and taxation. of the Mother Country, and the taxation, as lie knew personally, was enormous.

Take railways and roads: They could not be made to pay here unless there was more population. He had not been shaken about so much in any other place in the world as in New Zealand. In America there were good broadgauge railways; on the New Zealand railways in the North Island he could not get a wink of sleep, and on the roads his teeth were almost jolted out of his mouth. All that was the result o£ a small population.

SHILLING AND THE FRANC. The Bishop said he wished to be able to report to his council in England that there was a really good prospect for boys coming to help to make Now Zealand more prosperous and to relieve it of some of its difficulties. If the shilling followed the franc where would New Zealand's market be? Where would her prosperity be? Her prosperity depended oil the prosperity of the Mother Country. New Zealand seemed to forget that they must help each other. If New Zealand was more intensively farmed there would be more population and more prosperity. There should be more secondary industries. The Bishop, concluding, commended the Flock House scheme, and said that something might bo done in sending out domestic helps. There was a slump in butter, it was true, and land prices were enormously inflated, but that was only temporary. Ho looked to the future, to the great future, and again expressed a hope that New Zealand and the Mother Country would help each other. . . ,

A member of the' audience asked the Bishop if every available acre in England was- cultivated, or if land was being set asido for reserves for Dukes and Duchesses. Ho said that Canterbury landowners did not wish to part with their lands any more than English landowners did.

A POLITICAL QUESTION. Mr. E. J. Howard, M.P., said that lie regretted that the Bishop had played on the people's fears. New Zealand had taken more immigrants per head of population than any other part of the Empire had taken. At the samo time immigrants were pouring into England from all countries. His ( Lordship should reply to that. Many men were unemployed in Now Zealand. He agreed that this country should carry a larger population, but that was a political question. It had areas of waste lands that would carry a large population. Was England using all her landf It was known that sho was not. During the war a lot of land in England was put into cultivation, and now was used for doer sport by the gentry. A voice: "Hot!" Mr. Howard: "I agree that it is a rotten thing the Old Country has not got down to tin-tacks." Canon J. P. Couraoy said that Mr. Howard had grossly exaggerated the unemployed position, and because there were 500 unemployed in Christchurch it did not mean that the streets of every city were filled with unemployed. New Zealand owed to the Old Country more than she ever could repay. If New Zealand had taken more immigrants per head of population than any other country had taken, it had nothing to feel ashamed of. The Hon. D. Buddo, M.P., said that, as tho Bishop had said, if Now Zealand did not itself populate tho country somebody else would do it. Still New Zealand was doing something, and the country was being filled up slowly. There was almost an unlimited opening hero for Flock House boys, as described by tho Bishop. People hero were in sympathy with his mission, but the question was how best the idea could be carried out.

Mr. W. J. Jonkin said if there were not so many imports New Zealand could employ her own people and those who camo from the Old Country. New Zealand should bo careful about the class of peoplo who came out. The Rev. P. Rule said that no family should emigrato from the Old Country unless it had capital to keep it for the first threo months. Mr. J. 0. Coop, president of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, said that most of the people in that room were descendants of immigrants. He was not against immigration. l The Bishop said that the old estates in England were being cut up and sold. He had seen an extraordinary change; farmers now owned lands they formerly leased. He had had no intention of working on the people's fears, but repeated a remark made to him in Australia about not wishing for interference from another nation. The Mother Country wished to keep her daughter countries safe. It would be perfectly monstrous to send out bad characters'; overy country should deal with its own criminals.