CRYING OUT FOR MEN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXX, Issue LXXX, 14 February 1920, Page 7

CRYING OUT FOR MEN.

DOMINION'S GREAT NEED. ROOM FOR MILLIONS. A TIMID GOVERNMENT. New Zealand's share will probably be very small of the ex-service men of a suitable type with small capital, mentioned the other day in the cable news, who are anxious to strike out in a new line in th c younger lands, and escape the j strangling conventions of the Old World {which bears so heavily on the lower middle class, and those who do not aspire to come under that category. British F«st Africa is just receiving a batch of 100 of these very desirable would-be colonists, and they "are taking out with them capital to the amount of £150,000. The concensus of opiniqn in Auckland, as far as a Star reporter was able to gauge it, was that the New Zealand Government was afraid to tackle the problem, Much is talked about the great need! for immigration, but less than nothing is being done. The Govoriiment policy at present a/3 far as land settlement is to make provision first for the returned soldier. That i s just and proper, but the crying need of the ; country for more people will not be met by merely settling our own people on the land—highly desirable as that in itself may be. THE ESSENTIAL THING. "It lies at the foundation upon which the whole of our reconstruction work rests," said Mr J. Boddie, president of the Farmers' Union. "Unless we can attract by every possible means every man and every woman so as to increase the population of this country all the . other things that the Government, the local authorities, and the individual pro-j, ducer have done, .and: are doing, will not avail. We are not going to be successful unless we get more people. Every well-conducted citizens of a proper typ? that desires to conic to these shoves could be encouraged to do so with every confidence to the unquestionable advantage to himself or herself, and to the general well-being of the Dominion." It was suggested that in some other countries there was a vast surplus o f , land, of which free grants could be made to intending settlers, as was the case in British East Africa, for instance. "That is so," agreed Mr Boddie, "but to tell me that a million and some two hundred thousand of a population is sufficient for an area about as great as that of England and Wales, where they have a population of 40,000,000, I say it is absurd. Why the Government of N*W Zealand does not tackle this thing seriously, I cannot conceive. We should have five to ten million of people here. No, there is no chance of getting to,many people under the present condition of affairs. There are magnificent prospects of becoming primary producers. This is essentially a small man's country. The quality of the land1 in I many areas is such that a man could make a living, an independent living for himself and his family, on amihhta from 30 to 60 acres. It is being &Jt to-chiy. A policy of smatf. ho^*gs and intense cultivation is, however, impossible with the pment scarcrfey of labor for the jxrjm.a.ry. jjyfoducer. SOW TO LOWER PRICES. S'Bu^'-'- added Mr Bo&tfe, "there is W&s tfian that. I can speak with considerable knowledge as far as commercial and industrial matters are concerned. We are practically debarred from getting from America and the Old Country many commodities which \^ pre-war times we have had in unli^etf quantities. The result is thaij y^ Miust set about establishing th^ secondary industry for ourselves,, fhere is not a single industry to-^Jay,, I believe, We what could; wnpfoy more hands—fla&ny of them a great many more if %h(& could get then),. "v> rhy, thfe, great t^uMeno^v; is. not to sell gopds, fet. \o get go.ock to, sell. That meaj&i a scarcity©! <jr<ery commodity, nnA w&le that exists h%h prices, must continue. Until y e produce *fl ab,uflda;n,ce there is m h«spe of getting I PiV?c-e«. down," j "the, preset Government seems to be \™>ik!£ up between.the devil and the deep Wu.e- sea, with on one side a section , which wants to do all it can to discour- ) age the advent of additional labor, while \ on the other I think the Governm^ would like to do what must appeal ko>i\i own good sense. We found of money to win the war, \y^ io{i%& millions to try and do fcvtfive to those who went to the. \y^tv Now if those men and their «fc>pendents are goiii" to get this country into a position which, it Jt worthy of occupying, then w e ux»*i have more population to help «* ±he good work. If; the. Governm^i iojnorrow has to go and b,,,row two or three nullion pounds it ou^i* io be done and done immediately, ft it were done at once it would- «*&!«. us to take advantage of. th^ present apparent anxiety of our own kith and. kin in the Old Land to come out to New Zealand If «^ neglect that opportunity, sorae vtnor country will embrace it, an<J ihe time will come when w e «$* want these