IMMIGRATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 29 November 1927, Page 5

IMMIGRATION.

A NEW SCHEME. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE TO ASSIST GOVERNMENT WORK. (by TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 28. The public reception given to the Rt. Hon. L. C. M. S. Amery by the Mayor filled the Town Hall, despite the inclement weather. Speeches were made by the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Troup), the Hon. A. D. McLeod (on behalf of the Government), and the Chief Justice (Sir Charles Skerrett), and by Mr. Amery in reply, on the same lines as those in othei. places. Mr. Amery again expressed his admiration of what the early settlers who had landed in the thick bush amid hostile natives had accomplished in a little over 80 years, and added that there was no task greater than trying to learn something about one’s own Empire. Previou* 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 to adapt themselves to the Dominion’s conditions ; (b) provision of housing accommodation and- definite employment immediately on arrival; (c) the opportunity to acquire the necessary practical experience to admit of their assimiliation without disturbance of the labour market; (d) the opportunity to eventually become owners of their own homes an ( d farms; (e) encouragement to the investment of capital by British investors with security and a me fit able basis. The memorial laid down that .measures adopted .should not be dependent upon the* Government or local bodies for either finance or management, bnt should he supplenmtary to and .not- in substitution for Govrnment migration activities. FEATURES SUMMARISED. Features of proposals might be summarised as follows: 1. Investment in •>’w Zealand of British private capital with surety of sound security and reasonable return on investment; 2, the opportunity for a largely increased number of migrants settling in tbe Dominion with provision 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 the displacement of any worker already emuloyed in this country; 4, the opportune ty for the migrant to find reimuneraive employment at 'unskilled work during the first few years of hi® residence in the Dominion, and at the same time affording him training which would tenable him to be easily absorbed into the economic life of the Dominion at the end of that .period; 5, private, enterprise ensuring sound business ; t!io carrying through the schemes without harassing the Government of the day or being impaired; by political influence, but at the same time tin no way interfering with the ordinary mi "ration policy of the Government; G, the employment of British capital free from the proved risks of investments in foreign countriesMr L. Hunt (Dominion Settlement Association) and Mr Carr (ex-president if the Wellington Chamber of Commerce) presented the memorial and oriefiy outlined its scope and scheme. Mr Amery gave a sympathetic reply, in the course of which he alluded to tlie unemployment question. The Dominion had passed through a ,serious phase of : nernp loymp n t during the past 18 months, more serious, lie understood, than had' been the case for many yeans. FACING A BIG PROBLEM. During the past seven years Great Britain had had unemployment on a scale more serious than had been known for two or three generations. They regarded that unemployment was 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 o’, better distribution of the balance of industries, not only of the world, but still more in the inner and more intimate world which they called the British Empire, and to which they looked for the true solution of their interests. It was not that of shifting the iinemplo.xed out of Britain, of leaving it to chance whether they were employed elsewhere or not, but of cooperating with the Dominions in seeing to it that the right types were coming out to help to strengthen the community, and especiall y on that side where world production was so deP ient to-day, namely, primary production. so that the balance within the British Empire might be more effectively redressed, and in order that they* might co-operate with greater success in the common task of building up and assisting each other’s work.