The Evening Star FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1922. Immigration.

Evening Star, Issue 17921, 17 March 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1922.

Immigration.

WHHJf. the seas arc empty it is a sign of conflict. It cannot bo said that the seas of the world are at present empty, but an inordinate proportion of tho world’s shipping is lying idle in port.. One contributory reason ie that there is a trade war on. Since the armistice a striking feature of world politics las been the haste which nearly every /country has made to shut itself in behind impregnable tariff barriers. A craze jbm come over Governments that the

States they administer shall ho self-sup-porting. Whether this hermit-like national life is proving satisfactory or not we leave to others to judge, merely expressing tho opinion ourselves that the daily news of the world suggests unprecedented world-wide discontent. It appears that intercourse among nations is as necessary to health and sanity, let alone prosperity and progress, as it is among individuals; yet tho tendency is to shut out people as well as goods from abroad. Even a spacious country like America has ?ts immigration quota j and to tho more broad-minded of tho citizens of the United' States it must have ; been almost as humiliating to learn that a number of Australasian passengers by a Pacific liner were prohibited from landing as it was to tho passengers themselves. Iho standpoint of the Administrations which apply almost prohibitive regulations to the entry of people and goods is illogical. By shutting out goods they discourage trade, and thereby ultimately cause unemployment among their own people., I.hen they virtually prohibit immigration Jest it should "increase the unemployment they have helped to create. It looks suspiciously like attempting to compel two blacks to make one white. Our Now Zealand Government lias not officially adopted the American policy of sclf-suJlicicncy. Vet there are many advocates of it to he found among tiro masses. And they would apply it not only to foreigners in “blood, but to those of our own kith and km. .Britain, an induefcrial country, has be-eu terribly haul hit by recent foreign tariffs which block her goods from entry to once hi era the markets. This has caused unprecedented unemployment in Britain. It has imperilled "her living, and one of_ tlm results lias been to imperil oms, New Zealand largely lives by -supplying Britain with some of the necessaries of life. But Britain is having tho utmost difficulty in paying us for them, because she is unable to sell her manufactured goods abroad. Apart altogether from other considerations, it is .plainly to our self-interest to help our best customer in iho time of her distress. As Colonel Amery has juststated, British unemployment is an Imperial weakness. As Great Britain has conceded to tho Dominions a status of equality, we cannot claim the privileges attaching to it and repudiate any burden involved. Co-operation with Britain to remove her paralysis of unemployment is our plain duty. We cannot force foreign nations to remove their trade barriers; neither can she. 'The only alternative seems to be that her surplus workers should bo transferred from there to here. That would, before long, tend to widen the demand from New Zealand for British-manufactured goods, and would thereby increase employment for those who remain in Britain following industrial pursuits, it might decrease for a time tire British demand for our exports, while increasing our production of them. But surely other markets could be found for our products in that case. It is certain that, if things go on as they are doiiur, other markets will have to bo found, simply through Britain’s sheer inability to buy from us as she did m, the past. Colonel Amery does not suggest any mere palliative by dumping British unemployed here or in Australia or Canada or South Africa. Ho recognises that the remedy for the Imperial weakness is not iu the mere transfer of people in a geo- . graphical sense, 1 but it must be accompanied by a redistribution of population in the matter of means of livelihood as well —-as between agriculture and manufacturing industries. Artisans must turn farmers. The anti-immigration New Zealander might retort that Britain should apply this remedy internally. So she should, and probably would but for her feudal land system and her own Dominions’ competition in the Homo, produce markets. But such an effort Would not suffice, apart from the fact that it might hit our export trade a very shrewd blow. For shame’s sake tho Overseas Dominions should not stress this, seeing that in density of population the Dominions have six persons to the square mile as against Britain’s 400. Nevertheless, there is in a considerable section of New Zealand s population a permanent opposition to immigration, and it has become much more i intense and vocal now that it is being given effect to at a time whoa unemployment is already rife here. “As things are,’’ says a contemporary circulating among the mass-os, "every additional worker who arrives on onr shores is a menace to a New Zealand worker. Instead of many hands meaning light work for all, it means no work for some, no matter how much that work is needed in order to keep the wolf from tho door.’’ This is absolutely true, although it is a very faint welcome to a 'newcomer. Tho fact is we are out ready to welcome any. Transfer of population is no use at all unless preparations are made for tho change of occupation from industry to agriculture insisted on by Colonel Amery as vital. Whether any real constructive efficiency remains in Governments must bo put to the test, and the proof will bo tho speedy evolution ami putting into operation of a plan for a great Empire land settlement 'scheme. It is a peremptory Imperial task to relievo us from a crippling Imperial weakness.