"THE RIGHT TYPE"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 64, 17 March 1927, Page 8

"THE RIGHT TYPE"

(To the Editor.)

Str, —With reference to the controversy on the subject of immigration which is being brought to the notice of your readers at the present time, perhaps the moment is not inopportune to express briefly the feelings of one who v directly affected by the question.

Mr. F. Campbell, chairman of the Wellington Industrial Association/ k reported as recently saying that the "assisted immigrant made the best citizen^ immigrants paying their own fares. . . did not always come up to the standard of efficiency required by New Zealand employers." Assuming that • Mr. Campbell's reasoning is not as illogical aa it sounds, and that what he says is true, I am driven to the awful conclusion "that I have been far too egotistical, and that I have a very slender chance of getting any kind of employment in this country. In England, one hears' so much of the wonderful opportunities for immigrants of the "right type" in New Zealand, but now I am told that education, business training, etc., are encumbrances; The fact that I came-to this country at.considerable personal expense is also, according to Mr. Campbell, distinctly disadvantageous, but had I come at the'expense of the taxpayer, I should havo stood' a much better chance of being welcomed as a potentially good, citizen. ' Having seen a considerable number of the "assisted" class, I have no hesitation in saying that some of them, at least, are not the best type of Britisher,, either mentally t>r physically, and are very often of the type, with the exception of the. public school boys, and a few others, who have not made much out in the "Old Country" and are of necessity compelled to accept whatever they can get to keen body and soul together. "May I be forgiven for saying that the opportunities for the type of pioneer settler that first came to. New Zealand appear to have gone. The "pickings" have already been exploited, and the farm labourer coming here without a great deal of capital stands a good chance of remaining so for , the rest of his natural life.

„ One is, then, forced to the conclusion that there is antipathy on the. part of £Jew Zealanders and an absence of opportunities to British migrants with the exception of the surplus "assisted" labouring class. 6

In conclusion, may -I suggest to' those responsible for the eulogising to the people in England of the hospitality of thig country, that they carefully specify their desires m the shape of immigrants, and, turther, that a warning be given to intending settlers; who would, like myself have given up business and home, and at their own expense sailed lightheartedly for this "England of the South," only 10th March. •-,. - BRITON.