IMMIGRATION SYSTEM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 15 December 1926, Page 3

IMMIGRATION SYSTEM.

DEFECTS IN NOMINATION. THE FINDING OF EMPLOYMENT. Many ot : the large number ol migrants who are arriving ana will continue to arrive from Great ill'itain come out under tne Government nomination scheme. Under this the nominator is a person who has been resident lor a certain time in New 'Zeaiancl, anu he fills in a form of nomination, stating tne name, address and occupation and other particulars of the person, or persons, wnom he nominates tor an assisted passage to New Zealand, which passages are granted to certain classes of people who it is considered are good immigrants, and likely to do well out here. The form also contains this clause: “1 hereby undertake to find employment for the person herein nominated, and that provision will be made by me for his maintenance after arrival in the Dominion.” This is signed by the nominator. Criticism has been made of this clause by persons in touch with immigrants on various grounds. It is stated the department does not regara the undertaking as creating any legal obligation of bond, and that if an immigrant needs maintenance after arrival, no claim can be legally made on the nominator. Provision for Maintenance. Very often if such claim could he made, the nominator would not be in a position to make payment sufficient to redeem his undertaking to provide maintenance. In any case, the phrase, “provision for maintenance after arrival,” is entirely vague; no amount, no time, no method is stated. Legally it is too indefinite for a Court of law to enforce or oonstrue It not uncommonly happens that a newcomer cannot find work himself, and obviously it is almost impossible for his nominator to find employment for him, however good his intention when he signed his undertaking. Ine passage of time between nomination and the nominee’s arrival in New Zealand may make it impossible to provide work—the circumstances of the nominator, and of conditions here themselves may render the undertaking impracticable. . Further, the nomination form contains the clause, “The person nominated will reside permanently in the Dominion for a period of at least live vears.” How, it is asked, can any person make any such statement about any other person, especially about one coming to afresh environment in a new country? If anyone should give any such undertaking, it should be the nominee alone and not the nominator. How can tiie latter enforce it one the newcomer ? Restriction of Nomination.

The present system is alleged to be too wine; almost anyone in this countrv ma A nominate almost anyone m the specified class from Gieat Britain, ana ilk sufficient care or inquiry is made that the nominator is a responsible peison who can if need be carry out his undertakings, and whose nomination ought to be accepted, it should be ascertained that the nominator is likely to be able, for instance, to pay to the Government the difference between the full passage money and the assisted rate if any of his representations regarding the nominee are found incorrect as in the form signed bv him he undertakes to do. Of course, the success or non-suc-cess of an immigrant depends almost entirely upon his own character and efforts, and the department makes inquiries at Home as to his suitability before granting a passage. And, too, people' at Home urge and pensuage their relatives and friends who have got on to nominate them, thinking sometimes mistakenly that they too will succeed. “Something to Sell.” But the immigrant to get on here must, as the Labour Department says, have “something to sell.” An electrician, a carpenter, a mason who knows his trade, a farm hand who is such and not a Lancashire factory hand, will get work and keep it. feutficient care is not given at Home to see that the immigration to the Dominion can give something in return for his wages, something that this country needs, and of which she has not sufficient already. One class of person who comes here in rather surprising numbers many of who make application to the local Labour Department, is the mail who, often not young, has had a superior, often university education at one ot the dozen or more British universities. Not ra'relv he is an ex-officer; this type often comes here from India What has he to sell? Generally, nothing for which there is a demand, or at any rate a demand that we ourselves do not supply. He is of course rarely an assisted man, but he complicates the question and adds to the number of the unemployed .