IMMIGRATION PLAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1946, Page 8

IMMIGRATION PLAN

Careful and Selects ■ Policy REPORT BY- COMMITTEE /pA.) WELLINGTON, September 20. A careful and specific policy of immigration designed to meet urgent industrial manpower needs of New Zealand is tne major recdmmeridatibn of the Sriect Committee of t e ® , of Representatives appointed to consider ways and means increasing the population of the Eiomihion. — - The report of the committee, whose chairman was, Mr. d. Thorn, Government member for Thames, and which consisted o. six Government and four Opposition members, was tabled the House of Representatives to-day. The report is unanimo all topics.

The committee .finds that there is no need to provide any immigration for agricultural purposes, but the shortage of operatives for secondary industries cannot be met either at once or in the immediate future from internal sources. Because of housing difficulties, however, large-scale immigration should not immediately be undertaken. Exceptions are the cases of certain selected occupations, such as those of hospital nurses, domestic workers, coal miners, sawmillers, and operatives for certain expanding secondary industries. In these cases selected immigration of “relatively small dimensions” should, engage the immediate attention, of the Government.

Scandinavian Immigrants. These immigrants should be secured as far as possible from Britain, but an immediate investigation should be made of the availability of workers from Scandinavian countries, Holland, and, perhaps, Poland, says the report. These nationalities have in the past proved good citizens of New Zealand. Further immigration from southern European countries is not encouraged on the grounds that some southern European nationals who have come to the Dominion have not been assimilated here, but have tended to become relegated into small national groups. Other principal features of the report are:— . The birth-rate is likely to stabilise somewhere between 18 and 21 per 1000 and at this rate, provided the size of families remains constant, the population will slowly decrease. The heavy fall in the birth-rate during the depression will, . however, create employment difficulties, particularly in. the next six or seven years. Each married couple should produce more than two children if the population is to be maintained without immigration. . New Zealand’s death-rate is the lowest in the world, but cannot be expected to fall any lower. . The very great increase in the Maori population in recent years—3o per cent, between 1926 and 1936—is the outstanding fact in New Zealand s population development. Investigation Urged. The expectation of life is still increasing, but at a lower rate.

About two-thirds of the European population lives in the North Island, about 63 per cent, live in urban areas, and 37 per cent, in the counties. The socalled urban drift is a bogy and I is due not so much to the drift away from .farming as to technological advances. But the de" cline in the rural population in certain provinces, particularly in the South Island, calls for an early investigation. The tendency for secondary industries to congregate in Ihe four mam centres may create serious social and economic difficulties. Decentralisation of industries should be encouraged. One important way of doing this would be to provide more housing in some of the smaller towns. Relatively little land is available for farming and agricultural immigrants should not be encouraged. There is scope for immigration of coal miners and men for sawmilling and btishfelling. There has been major expansion in the number of Governmental em-ployees-—more than proportionate to the increase in population—which is due to the extension of the field 01 Government activity. ’ New towns and suburbs should oe adequately laid out under modern town-planning laws. A small secretariat should be attached directly to the Cabinet for the continuous study of population problems. The present criminal law against induced abortion is drastic enough, but there is need for a deeper*’ moral appreciation of the issues involved. The sale of contraceptives should be restricted to registered pharmacists.

NEARLY 100,000 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 20. An interesting section of the Population. Committee’s report relates to the number of Government employees, it is stated that in the central. Government the number in 192’1 was 42,000, and that by 1936 there had been an increase to 56,000. In 1946 the number was over 99,000, of whom 45,000 were in the public service under the Public Service Commissioner, including nearly 13,000 permanent employees, nearly 18,000 temporaries and over 15,000 casuals. Nearly 27,000 were in the Railways Department, divided almost equally as between permanents and casuals. In the Post and Telegraph Department there were over 16,000 employees, of whom 11,000 were permanents. There were over 8000 teachers and 1500 -’in the police force. Local governing bodies had over 26,000 employees in 1921, compared with over 42,000 at present. Discussing housing, the report endorses the suggestion for the decentralisation of certain types of industry from the larger centres to some of the smaller towns, but says that the lack of housing accommodation in these areas must seriously retard that development. ]