BIG PUSH NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 58, 12 March 1929, Page 12

BIG PUSH NEEDED

SETTLING THE LAND

MORE MIGRANTS WANTED

ALSO ANOTHEK BOARD

Under.tho auspices of the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League and the Dominion Settlement Association of Wellington, a conference on land settlement and migration problems was opened at the Conference Hall of the Dominion Farmers' Institute to-day. ,■ Mr. ; A, Leigh Hunt was voted to the : chair. Among those present were: Mr. H. E. Jenkins* Ml 3., Mr. O. 13.< Macmillau, M.P., Mr. It. D. Dickie, M.P., and Mr. H. D. Thomson (Secretary to the Immigration Department).

Mr. Hunt said that in a country of the vast naturalresources and comparatively small population of New Zealand one would not expect to find any unemployment. Ono would think that the Dominion would be getting in. every year a large number of our own kith and kin, British migrants, the best settlers iv tho wor^d; but migration from Britain was at the. lowest ebb; As regards land settlement, too, there were millions of acres of land quite capable of settlement.' Personally, he utterly disagreed from the statement.frequently made during the past few years, oven by responsible Ministers of tho Crown, that all the land worth settling in -New Zealand has been already taken up. They should be working up a very vigorous land settlement policy. Apart from the Government hydroelectric schemes, there were millions of horsepower running to waste that might and ought to be developed by private enterprise for manui'ftdturing purposes— chemical, metallurgical, and otherwise. Capital should be coming out here every year for such purposes. But our unemployment problem and our land settlement problem were still unsolved. British migrants were not coming into the country, nor was British capital coming into the Dominion to develop it. The conference had to answer tho big questions involved; and let its answer be a free and'honest one, without regard for the predelictions of politicians or anybody else.,' There must, surely, be something wrong, when in a country of tho great latent possibilities of New Zealand they had now a chronic unemployment problem, and could not absorb British /migrants. In 1874, when the population of the country was only 300,000, no less than 32,000 immigrants entered the country, and in the following year 20,000' came hfire. But last year only 3000 assisted immigrants —restricted to relatives of those already here—came into the Dominion; or less than one-tenth of the number in 1874.

NATIONAL SECURITY.

Then, the question of national security, the greatest question of all, was overlooked. The greatest men of Empire had; told us that unless the country was peopled at a very much more rapid rate, we could never hold New Zealand as a white man's country. That was a matter that had to be faced; _ but hardly a word was said about it. in the Press or in Parliament. Unemployment was :not merely a question for. politicians; it was a question for business men. Unemployed labour, like unused natural resources, was an economic Waste. • There was ouly too much ■.truth, perhaps, in the statement that numbers of men wore not, employed because the, employers: could not get from them value for their money. That, too,-was a question that had to be faced; and he thought that the opinion of the conference would be that these big problems should be put in charge of a permanent board capable of dealing with all these inter-related questions. The Hon. E. A. Eansom (Minister of Public Works) had stated recently that there were now 14,000 men— one for every 35 or so of the breadwinners of the country—employed by that . and' yet there were 3000 men on the books of the Labour Department looking for work. The whole position pointed to, the necessity for a big push, to get at the root of ail these difficulties. New Zealand could only be kept in a healthy economic condition by placing on the land every year a large body of new settlers. But we had no city lads hungering to get on the land,, or even farmers' sons wanting to get land alongside their fathers. Something was .radically wrong when that was : tho position in this young country. These questions of unemploymont and land 'settlement were quite above party politics. They had got; to evolve a policy on,which they could build up a public opinion so strong that the people would set their teeth and determine to get-to the bottom of these big problems. He could, not see the wisdom of the Government buying up improved estates, cutting them up and saying lit had made a start in. regard to land settlement. In his opinion, it was far better to bring in land at present unused. Their slogan must bo "Back to the land."

That brought him toa state of affairs

he could never understand. Tho British Government had placed "at the disposal of tho .Dominions, under tho liiupiro Settlement Act,. £15,000,000— £3,000,000 a year - for < five years—for the settlement of. British .migrants on tho land. But not a copper had been used for that purpose in Now Zealand. It' was true'that the Imperial Government had expected the Dominions to provide- funds on the basis of 50-50. But, surely, if tlie Dominions did not approve of that basis they could, have suggested another.

Mr. Thomson: "New Zealand had £250,000 of that money."

Mr. Hunt: "I was not aware of it." Then, ho added,.under the Trade Facilities Act, the Home Government offered many millions to the Dominions for development purposes, but not a copper of it had come to Now Zealand. He could not help feeling, in view of. such facts, that wo were '-'a pack of fools wrapped.up in our own smug self-sufliei-ency.?' There wore upwards of six million acres 'of second-class laud, pumice land, etc., in the North Island awaiting development;'and millions of horso power available-for tho electrochemical industries that would provide for the development of such lands, the best and'the cheapest possible fertilisers. One thing that was essential was that for the. first five years of: its development this second-class Jand should be free of land tax. . He.hoped: that the conference would call for. the establishment of a capable permanent Settlement and Migration Board, thoroughly representative of '. all interests in the community, and above all party.polities, to fully investigate theso problems. As the board issued its interim reports, action could be taken on the lines indicated. The conference could not hope to settle these problems; but it could crystallise theni to" some extent and perhaps'focus attention upon them and he trusted that it would do so. He hoped that the conference would find a cure for the present hidebound condition of the country. (Applause.) LESSON FROM WESTERN „ AUSTRALIA. Mr. N. G. Gribblo (secretary of the Auckland Land (Settlement League) strongly stressed tho need for a vigorous land settlement policy, saying that it was ridiculous to: say, that there was no land available when the population, of New Zealand was only 13 or 14 to the square mile. The.present Minister of Lands, and Minister of Public Works agroed tha't..;,thcre' were millions of acres of unused Wand suitable for set: tlemcnt. One of the,causes why more settlers were'noV;available.was that on our education system, £4,000,000 a year was being spent to provide something that was not calculated to meet the needs of the country. Another, of course I,'1,' was that British migration was not encouraged as it should be. In Western Australia they ■ were settling. 250,000 acres of new land per annum, and settling 2000 families per! annum under the Empire Settlement Act; and the money for development was costing them only 2 per cent, per annum for ten years. How long, he asked, would unemployment last in.'New Zealand:, if ■settlement was-going. 6'n at that rate? He endorsed! Mr. Hunt's statement as to the urgent need.of an Immigration and Land Settlement Board. :

' 'BIAS TOWARDS DUNGAREES.''

Mr. Dicldo said that the present Minister of Education (the Hon. 11. Atmore) had been going round tho country saying that the present system of education #as. too academic, and that the system ought to have a bias towards the land. But it was very difficult to get an educational bias towards Kinglets and dungarees, and all the dirty work that had to be done on tho land. No .amount of highor education would give a bias .to'the: land. Tho: bias given was all the other way... They could build aa .many Mass'ey College's as they liked, but that would.not make farmers. Ho thought.one agricultural, college of, university, standard- quite enough for New Zealand, and had always opposed'in Parliament the building of Massey College. He quite agreed with the idea 1 mooted by tho Farmers' Union recently of apprenticing boys .'to farm work., ,They must apprentice boys to practical, hard headed farmers, who would teach them the. economic side of the industry. People did not go into farming to-day, except as' a business proposition to make money, and any boy could be trained to make money on the land in New Zealand, provided he was put on the right lines. • In his opinion, the Arbitration Court, by fixing, high wages in the towns/had done more than anything else to alienate lads from the land.' The high rate of wages now paid on relief works was ; also causing men to. leave the land to go on to such works. . .

Mr. A. W. . .Chapman (Waikato Swamp Development League) . stressed the need for education, iii. scientific farming, and contended that to foster secondary industries at .'the .expense of the farmers by means, of protective tariffs was. absolutely ivrong. It was wrong,' too, tliat the ' banks should charge the farmer a higlier rate of in-, torcst tlian. that charged -: to comuier-. cial. men. He was totally opposed to tlio purchase- of large, estates for settlement purposes, i The Government should turn its attention to tho uut improved' lands of the Dominion.

(Proceeding.)