BIG PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 129, 2 June 1936, Page 11

BIG PROBLEM

OVERSEAS SETTLEMENT DISCUSSION IN LONDON Wm yiEW NEEDED (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, May 13.

The increasing importance attached i to Empire immigration was illustrated ] by a meeting of the Royal Empire 1 Society held at the Victoria Hotel this i week. Mr. B. S. B. Stevens, Premier * of New South Wales, initiated a dis- | cussion on overseas settlement and was ' followed by several other speakers, • including Lord Bledisloe, Sir Hal Cole- j batch, Agent-General for Western Aus- ( tralia, Mr. L. St. Clare Grondona, Dis- , trict Commissioner for the Special i Area of Cumberland, Sir Alan Ander- j son, M.P., the Bishop of London, Com- . missioner Lamb, of the Salvation . Army, and Admiral Sir William Good- < enough. Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, I Secretary of State for Dominion : Affairs, presided. ! Mr. Stevens referred to the great progress made by Australia in the short space of 150 years, and said that she had faced up to her difficulties during the depression with courage , and had largely overcome them. The problem of land settlement was not merely that of transferring man power from one centre to another. There was a great need to appreciate the value of the problems in terms of population, and he would like to see the British nation take the lead. It was not going to be politically easy, but Australia was very interested in various schemes suggested. The problem was much bigger than any dealt with previously, but there were very big opportunities. , RESPONSIBILITY AND OPPORTUNITY. "We have the responsibility of developing a great territory," said Mr. Stevens. "No other group of British people will ever again have the same opportunity. From our end it is our job to see that the opportunity is taken. Careful steps must be taken, and we must see where we are going, and upon what basis we can go. We believe that in order to develop our economic position we must develop and expand, and our job is to try to estimate what the condition of that expansion may be. We, cannot make a big continent bigger unless we set about the job in a businesslike way. Australia, continued Mr. Stevens, presented a magnificent opportunity to British people. If it was a question of capital where there was a greater field for investment than in the Dominions? His view was that there was every opportunity of success if correct lines of economic development were followed. It was a job to be tackled in a big and courageous way. Lord Bledisloe said that Mr. Stevens s was the most encouraging speech he had heard since returning from New Zealand. Mr. Stevens had suggested : that the problem should be tackled in a big and courageous way. "That is exactly what I am confident we have not done in regard to immigration for ; many years past," said Lord Bledisloe. "Our method has been casual, slipshod, unsystematic, without any careful consideration of economic p6ssibilities. I feel inclined to say do not let us continuously stand shuddering on the shore, but with faith in our race and its potentialities and in our great heritage overseas let us push off on them." i Mr. Stevens, continued Lord Bledisloe, had referred in a memorandum . circulated among the speakers to territorial ambitions of other countries and had said: "This may be the last opportunity that an English-speaking people ' will have of building up a British Australia." He would also like to add, "and a British New Zealand." NEW ZEALAND'S FUTURE.

He would like to suggest that they should not be too much afraid of political and temporarily political difficulties, for it might be dangerous to take too short-sighted a view. If there was one impression that he had of what was most essential for New Zealand it was that she should have a great augmentation of population from British sources as soon as possible. She had excellent national services in the way of railways, roads, electric supplies now provided for a population of one million and a half, and which were ample for a population five times as large. There was no lack of valuable national resources and in order to develop them- New Zealand must have capital and business enterprise. Quite frankly, New Zealand had not got it; at any rate, it was not coming from British sources. There were millions lying idle in banks in England on deposit at 1 per cent, when overseas they had a magnificent heritage with resources that would return 6 or 7 per cent., while amply remunerating those employed in the industries. Americans were more

shrewd in this direction, and some of the most prominent exploitation of gold mines in New Zealand were in the hands of Americans and were doing extremely well. He hated to think that the profits were passing into the pockets of the Americans, high as his regard was for that race. There was great scope for capital to be invested in the under-developed industries of Australia and New Zealand. Lord Bledisloe said he did not favour Government subsidisation of industries because it indicated a relative lack of enterprise and of business acumen. He would rather see private enterprise taking the initiative.