MIGRATION PROBLEM.

Grey River Argus, 30 November 1927, Page 3

MIGRATION PROBLEM.

Memorial Presented.

TO LEOPOLD AMERY. , >. , 6 WELLINGTON, November 28. H A public reception to Mr. Amery by I the Mayor, filed the Town Hall, de- i spite the inclement weather. Speeches ; maae by Mayor Troup, lion. A. D. McLeod on behalf of the Government j rnd the Chief Justice, and by Mr.

Amery ,iu reply, v»ero on the same lines as in other places. The latter again expressed admiration of what the early settlers wm« had landed in thick bush amid hostile natives, had accomplished in a little over 80 years, and added that there was no task greater than trying lu learn something about one’s own Empire.

Previous to the reception he had received a memorial on migration. This set out the position at some length arguing that the essentials of any scheme likely to be successful were: (a) Careful selection of people Likely tu adapt themselves to Dominion con-

ditions. (b) Provision of housing accommodation and definite employment immediately on arrival, (c) Opportunity to acquire necessary practical experience to admit of their assimilation without disturbance of the Labour market, (d) Opportunity eventually to become owners of their own houses and farms, (e) Encouragement to investment of capital by British investors with security and profitable basis. The memorial laid down that the measures adopted should not be de pendent upon the Government or local bodies for either finance, or manage - n.ent,- but should bo supplementaryto, and not in substitution for, Government immigration activieies. Features of the proposals might be summarised as follow: (1) Investment in New Zealand of British private capi--tal, with surety of sound security and

reasonable return on investment; (2) Opportunity for a. largely increased number of migrants settling in th” Dominion with pro vision for employment and housing having previously been arranged for each one of them. (3) Such increased migration being applied to new developments would not mean displacement of any worker already employed in the counlry; (1) Opportunity for the migrant to find

remunerative employment at unskLied work during the first few years of his residence in the Dominion and at the same time affording him training which would enable him to be easily absorbed into the economic life of the Dominion, at the end of that periol; (5) Private enterprise ensuring tound business methods carrying through the schemes without harassing the Government of the day or being impair ed by political influence, and at the same time in n» way interfering with rhe ordinary migration policy of the G vernment; (6) Employment of Brdish capital in Cue portion of Empire free from the } roved risks of investm iits in foreign countries. Mr. A. L. Hunter, of the Dominion Seltiein. nt Association, and Mr. Carr, cx-Presldent of the Welington Chambi r of Commerce, presented the memorial, and briefly outlined i>s scope and scheme of migration st.g Mr. Amery gave a sympathet e r.- • Jy, in the course of which he allud d lo the unemployment question. The Dominion, he said, had passed through serious phase of unemployment dining the past eighteen months, meie serious he undeistoud than had hicii the case for many years. During the past seven years, Great Britain ha d Lad uncTnploynicnt on a scale moie ecnous than had been knov.n for two or three generations. They le gaidcd that unemployment as not due merely to the fact that their population was so large. That was not their problem, it was the disorganisation of the balance of the world s industry and it was on those lines of better distribution of balance of industries, only of the world, but still more in that inner and more intimate world of ours, which we called the British Empire, ami to which we looked for a true solution of our interests. The problem of nation building within the Empire was not that of shifting the unemployed cut of Britain, and of leaving it to chance whether they were employed elsewhere or not, but of co-operating with the Dominions in seeing to it that the right Empire men and women were coming out to help to strengthen the community, and especially on that ride where world production was so deficient to-day, namely primary production, so that the balance within the British Empire may be mor? effeetivelv redressed and in order that we might co-operate with greater success in the common task of building r.p and assisting each other’s work.