OUTLOOK FOR MIGRATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 89, 12 October 1937, Page 8

OUTLOOK FOR MIGRATION

It should be abundantly clear to New Zealanders by this time" that this country is greatly in need of more population for purposes not only of defence, but of a better balanced economy to facilitate an expansion and development which will ensure a lightening of the burden imposed by the heavy cost of pioneering a new land. The series of articles published in "The Post" and recent speeches and pamphlets present an unanswerable case at this end. At the other end the need is equally urgent. The cessation of emigration during " the period of depression undoubtedly accentuated Britain's unemployment problem and still leaves it acute. For this reason it is gratifying to note the reawakened interest in Empire migration shown by the great conference which opened in the Guildhall, London, yesterday. Over four hundred persons were present, including representatives of the Dominion and British Governments, State and provincial Governments and municipalities, and migration organisations. The Lord Mayor of London, who presided, opened the proceedings with a statement, which, if it does not apply to New Zealand in particular, certainly concerns the Empire in general. This was to the effect that "aliens who have-no link with nor loyalty to the Empire and whose standard of living is low are peopling the empty spaces of the Dominions." The danger has been recognised in Canada and a repetition of the error' is unlikely. Similarly the danger of the unrestricted emigration of the past has been recognised in. Britain and it is . definitely proposed by the London conference now sitting that future jnigration shall be organised with selected families for establishment not only on the land but also in industry and development of other activities. "Practical suggestions for migration, were put forward by Lord Home, who pointed, out that the collapse of migration was a potential danger to the Empire, that it was a fallacy to believe that immigrants would deprive the residents of the Dominions of employment, and that it would be wrong to concentrate on placing immigrants on the land. All JtHese are points strongly emphasised by spokesmen for the migration movement in New Zealand. What Lord Home suggested was the formation of an Empire Development Board with representatives of engineering, industry, and commerce and a permanent secretariat; Such a;'body would be of the greatest value in collating information from all sources and determining the best avenues for migration. Lord Blcdisloe, in placing the absorptive capacity of New Zealand at ten to twenty millions of people in fifty years, may be erring a little in his optimism, but he was emphatic that the crying need for New Zealand was "British capital and brains," and if capital were not forthcoming from private sources, it should be furnished by the British Government in loans at low rates of interest to companies and corporations, and that with the influx of men and money secondary industries would inevitably expand. If the Dominions were not backed by British capital foreigners would step in. No country, he said, was more vulnerable than New Zealand and population was badly needed for defence, but there must be an end to the haphazard influx of the past. From what has thus been said by responsible men it would appear that organised migration, supplemented by capital, is now, so far as Britain is concerned, within the realm of practical politics. It remains for the authorities at this end to do their part,