The Hawera Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1927. IMMIGRATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 17 March 1927, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1927. IMMIGRATION.

Delivered every evening: by 5 o'clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alt-'ti Hurlcyville. Patea. Wa.verley. Mokoia. Whakatnara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fra.sei Itoad and Ararata

A Christchurch paper status flint, the Bishop of London, who is at present in that city, discussed ‘‘fully and frankly-” the subject of immigration with “representative, responsible citizens,” but. unfortunately, its report does not allow the reader to judge for himself just how full and frark the discussion AT.?. The Eight Rev. Dr. Winnington Ingram, who has won the whole-hearted esteem of all who have had the privilege of meeting him in the course of his New Zealand tour, has made immigration the subject of close study, and he has come to the Dominion with the object of finding out at first hand the prospects existing here for some of Britain’s surplus population at. the same time that, he establishes closer touch with the overseas representatives of his own church. His speeches have revealed that, ho is a firm believer in the continuance, of the policy of keeping the Dominions’ populations white and British, and, coming as he does from The centre of the Empire where he has a close first-hand knowledge of the pitiable conditions of the dwellers in England’s slums, his enthusiasm for the cause of peopling the empty spaces of Australia and New Zealand with British stock can be well understood. He has told his hearers of the conditions which exist in the Old Country in a manner which has impressed everybody with the necessity which faces England of finding employment for her youths who have never worked for the reason that since they have come of workingage there has been no work for them

to do. He has shown, too, that he is quite well aware of the difficulties which face those who -would, if they could, bring about hotter conditions for England's workless by means of immigration) but he has not disguised the fact that difficulties, other than those which exist at this end, face those who would arrange for the transport of unemployed to this and to the other Dominions. He has informed his audiences that, though England’s population of 36,000,000 is being added to at the rate of 300,000 each year, the fear of the unknown, and the reluctance of the workers to allow the breaking up of the family through the immigration of the younger members, lias held back the work to some extent at Home. His Lordship has been impressed by the fact that' this country, which is in many respects so much more favourably endowed by nature than England, supports less than two million people, and bv the fact that the great Continent of! Australia is capable of carrying a population many times greater than the six millions who at present occupy that country. While making it clear that he is fully aware that we in New Zealand have to guard against a lowering of the standard of living of oirr workers, the Bishop of London has not hesitated to appeal to the people of the Dominions to share the good conditions which they enjoy with their less fortunate fellows from the Homeland, and such conferences as that he had this week with representative citizens in Christchurch have been held with the object of fmdiug ont the real position here as regards prospects for settlers from overseas. This close personal contact will he productive of much good if, as a direct result. it brings both sides to a realisation, that anxious as England is to find fresh fields for her people and desirous as the majority of the people of this Dominion are of helping the Old Country at the same time that they help themselves towards a fuller development, the problem does not resolve itself into the simple one of “you have the people and we have the land.” Those who see in immigration the security of the future of the Empire have to evolve ways and means of ensuring that the pepole who are brought here to find fresh hope and new life are actually given both. It is true, as the Bishop has discovered for himself by observation, that New Zealand can be more intensely farmed, and that she could support larger populations in her cities if sho went in more extensively for secondary industries, but it has to be borne in mind, that land cannot be farmed without money and that the success of secondary industries depends upon accessibility to markets and ability to compete with more favoured peoples in the matter of price when those markets are ultimately reached. Wc have previously expressed the hope that any fresh contributions to the immigration policy of the Dominion will he in the direction of finding ways of interesting the prospective settler with some capital in the possibilities of this country, and we would add to that the need for encouraging outside capital, and British capital for preference, io invest in secondary industries here. There is no reason in the world why the Englishman with a few hundreds at the hack of! him should not make a comfortable position for himself out of the land in Now Zealand as many New Zealanders—and not all born farmers either—have done before; and though there are difficulties due to distance from the biggest markets, there are possibilities here for the manufacturer who is sufficiently strong financially to introduce methods which will keep the cost of production down to a minimum. The introduction, of these two classes of “immigrants” would considerably augment the flow of commerce, which is the life-blood of this country, as it is of any country, and as our strength increased so we would have more to offer the skilled artisan of England, the farul labourer and the domestic servant. But until our resources are thus strengthened, there is a welldefined limit upon our power of absorption of those classes of immigrants with profit to them and real security for ourselves.