Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1913. THE IMMIGRATION SCHEME.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9488, 10 May 1913, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1913. THE IMMIGRATION SCHEME.

; Notwithstanding the dire prophecies of what would happen to the population of this Dominion if ever a Reform Government handled the reins of office, the returns recently issued by the Government Statistician show that- the country has weathered the ordeal in quite a satisfactory manner. The population did not stampede at the advent of Mr Massey in the role of Premier, nor were the streams of immigration frozen by the fall of a regime which arrogated to itself the beneficent operations of a minor providence. The population figures for the year ended March 31st must in this respect be a keen disappointment to the calamity-howlers who so indifferently play the role of critic of the Government. New Zealand's gain in population by the excess of arrivals over departures was 11,957, as compared with 5892 in the last year of the wornout Administration—a splendid testimony to the steadying effect of a change of government not only in the eyes of the people of New Zealand, but in the eyes of outsiders as well. Of the very large number of arrivals in the Dominion during the year only a small proportion, 3451, were assisted immigrants, and of these more than a thousand were of that very welcome class, the domestic servant, while close on another thousand of the immigrants were farmers and farm labourers. Nearly another thousand children contributed to the total and 534 wives came out to join husbands who had preceded them and were evidently satisfied with evidences of the country's fruitfulness. The statistics show that apart from the assisted immigrants many thousands have been voluntarily induced to try their fortunes in this favoured land, for while the arrivals from the United Kingdom were 14.169, the departures were only 1484. Apart from the satisfaction which such figures give there are other points about the migration problem which are decidedly heartening. It has been pointed out on m'any occasions that one of the absurdities of our position in the past was that while we were steadily attracting population at great cost we were making no headway, simply because there was a serious leakage to Australia. This year, however, the figures relating to the movements of population across the Tasman Sea show that while the arrivals from Australia numbered 29,567 the departures for the Commonwealth were only six less. Consequently New Zealand's acoount with Australia is just about square for the year and this country gets the full benefit of its own immiabout the figures for comment. It is the revelation that while I nearlyw. twelve ' thousand 1 Britishers ' came to us from over the water we only received 272 persons from foreign ' countries. In some respects it may be \ argued that it is a good sign to see our <

own blood, but it must be remembered that a very considerable proportion of our most worthy and most loyal citizens are either immigrants from foreign lands or the descendants of immigrants. The Manawatu district has had striking evidence of the value of the men from the northern countries of Europe, arid it would be a very good thing if the newly-organised Immigration Department could find a means of getting into touch with the6e countries again and arranging for larger numbers of the exoellent class which has so materially assisted the Dominion's progress.