Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 8,500 Copies Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1910. TRUE IMPERIALISM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9160, Issue 9160, 9 March 1910, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 8,500 Copies Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1910. TRUE IMPERIALISM.

During his recent visit to New Zealand Mr Will Crooks, the British Labour leader, kept an observant eye upon the possibilities of the Dominion as an outlet for the surplus population of the Old Country. He

appears to have noticed that the class of immigrants who were coming out under the auspices of the Government was not at all suitable. He considers that before people are sent out to the colonies they should undergo some training' for the work they would be called upon to do. The outskirts of the Empire want men, and the Mother Country has them to spare. To Mr Crooks' mind the Empire's need is a statesman who will frame a scheme of co-operation between Britain and the colonies. He holds that it would pay England, and would pay the Empire, to give unemployed men a year or two years' training in farm colonies and then ship out to Australia and New Zealand those of them who are willing to go as farm labourers. In his opinion such a scheme would be the truest exemplification of Imperialism, but the essence of it must bo that only trained men should be sent. To a New Zealand journalist in London, Mr Crooks explained his views. New Zealand he found to be a young country with a grand climate and magnificent resources, and without the deadweight of a big slum population to carry. "But," he said, "what the Dominion has to guard against is the accumulation of masses of humanity in her towns when the land is' crying out for settlement in the country districts. New Zealand can carry a vast population; its resources are astonishing. But you want peo T pie who will open up the land, not men who hang round the towns undercutting wages and swamping the labour market, and degenerating into slum-dwellers." It appears to Mr Crooks that the business of a Government is to guide the people who lack initiative—that is to say, the masses of the people. The man with initiative can be trusted to look after himself, but the multitudes who lack it must be guided and cared for. Is there no colonial statesman who will face this great task and organise the future population according to the

country's needs? New Zealand wants population, but she does not want her labour markets flooded by ship-loads of immigrants of the useless type, and it is imperative that this should be realised by the Government. Hand in hand with such a policy as that indicated by Mr Crooks there would, of course, have to be a systematic opening up of Crown and Native lands for settlement. There are hundreds of thousands of acres awaiting utilisation in the North Island alone. When this land is opened up and developed the productive capacity of the Dominion will be enormously increased, and the danger of unemployment and depression greatly .minimised. It is to be regretted that the Government cannot be brought to recognise that an honest attempt to grapple with this jproblem would entitle it to the respect and approval of the whole country.