RECONSTRUCTION AND MIGRATION

Evening Star, Issue 17313, 29 March 1920, Page 6

RECONSTRUCTION AND MIGRATION

The Qtago Expansion League rave a nudaay luncheon to -Mr T. E. Sedowick to-65iy. Mr Chas. Todd, chairman of the league, occupied the chair. In introducing 3lr Sedgwick, who spoke on ' Some Aliases of Imperial Migration/ Mr Todd h£ i.5? tmSt f ™] Sed ? wkk wonld ™ his influence to induce the right class of people to come to New Zealand. "Ve did not require what migU be called "hotimSrt + i humans » wh ° live onlv ndcr the very best conditions in fivenomed_ houses. Men of the tvpe of the T* W ? nted - wanted workers, and not wreckers Mr Sedgwick referred to the close connection between reconstruction and mi Ration, and pointed out that everyone in >.ew Zealand was an immigrant or of immigrant descent, and it therefore spek lv ; behoved them to help others to join them i m_ then- prosperity., and to make the Dojiniiuo,, nnrfiUer yet; but the foundation : oi . ,1 greatness was a sufficient population | 'well nourished and well emploved The I Home- Government were opening 'out in granting tree passages to ex-sokJiers and iati I Vo *™j™&) who were acceptj able to the High Commissioner. The w Zealand Government were granting large concessions m fares to other elates jot desirable immigrants, and a larger I amount of advertising, or rather educa- ; iion, would be undertaken at Home as to j the advantages of the Dominion f or immij "rants. Much was, however, left for the eague or its members to undertake The league, acting in conjunction possibly with the Southland League, could put out a picture pamphlet of rural life, especially everyday duties and episodes. Twenty housand or snchbooklets could be circu- , iatecf by the High Commissioner at nominal expense, especially if their issue were conimeri to the country between the Grampians and the Humber, so as to concentrate the migration policy of each province to a specified area of recruiting at Home. Also, pictures of rural life in Otngo and Southland could be framed and hung in schools in the same area, thus planting the desire to migrate in the mind ot he child, and proving that we weren't all black. Barracks and hostels were necessary for the due reception and distribution of immigrant.?. If accompanied by preliminary training in farm and domestic work for lads and lasses respectively so much the better. Homes could be erected to "top off" tfirls from Home orphanages who could be placed out as domestic helps at the age of 15 in artisan families withm a radius of the said home centre. Persons desiring to do something ias a personal, war, or other memorial ! could help in such works, name them as | they chose, and see their ideas carried out j better than if they merely left a legacy I for others to spend on the work. Other i more specially persona! works would inI elude hostels for apprentices to our seconi dary industries, where they could live j respectably on their learners' wages; re- ! search, experimental, and training farms | for adults, as conducted in New South ' IVales : travelling agricultural echolar- | ships as adopted in South Africa; garden | cities at uniform rente, but the' size of the I houses varying with that of the family: j rational reeo-ds, such as the Hocken and | M'Nab collections now in Dunedin. All ( these would help the immigrant as well as I give interest in life to the donor, whose tna-me would thus be evergreen, aa deeds j shout whilst memorial tablets are dis- ' counted.