MIGRATION MATTERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 285, 5 November 1925, Page 14

MIGRATION MATTERS

SCOTCHMAN’S VIEWPOINT. AN OUTLOOK IN DOMINION. The following letter on migration matters appeared above tlie signature of “Jock” in The Scotsman of September 23, a copy of which was received by a local resident yesterday: Palmerston North, New Zealand, August 15, 1925. “Sir, —I was frequently applied to, during a recent visit to Scotland, for information as to our real position by those who, having a fair amount of capital, wished to make the venture of taking, up farming land in this country. ; “I fear that our actual conditions are very imperfectly put before you, and may as well state that the ordinary tourist literature, dealing with our scenic wonders, sword-fish and shark fishing, Maori customs, and the like, has no application or interest to work-a-day New Zealanders, whatever they may hold for the tourist. “In land values (especially since 1911) wo have gone beyond ourselves, and until these arc correctly reduced they can offer no payable or workable proposition to present buyers. “1 would ask any who may question this statement —1 mean those who have any knowledge of laud at all—to look up the files of such New Zealand papers as are in reading rooms of your libraries, scan the advertisements, and compare the prices with those in the British Isles. “During the war period some attempt was made to stamp out profiteering. It was, on the whole, a sorry attempt, and a costly one, but no effort was made to deal with the scandalous profiteering in land. We were on a wild ‘jamboree,’ and the prices you had to pay, in your extremity, during these times for wool, meat, butter and the like, were looked upon as a fixture, and good for all time. “Let us take the official figures. In 1914 our export values were £25,984,000. In 1925 they touched £54,771,000. This increase was partly through increased production, but very largely through enhanced prices. Not bad for a country of some one and a quarter million people, and ishould have been enough to keep us on the right side of the ledger. It didn't, though, as, although our trade balance for 1925 amounted to £4,950,003, it was more than soaked up by our interest- bill of £0,000,000. Wo have utterly failed to make both ends meet, and, by the way, our Minister for

Financo has’ recently declared in the House that our public debt amounts to £227,814,047. AVe aro still gambling on your paying us inflated prices lor our wares, and on your being so lazy and feckless as to need such quantities annually as you have drawn from us in the past. “Here are the i 923 figures (those for 1924 arc not yet available) for our exports to great Britain and the United States of America respectively: '

“Our total export values to America that year amounted to £3,531,000, but America did better out of us with goods to tile value ot £(3,096,000, included in which amount wore £1,206,000 for motor cars and parts, and £1,719,000 for mineral oils. It seems strange to a layman in such matters that you cannot get more car business, but there it is. 1 have quoted these figures for a purpose. .Should you wake up and reduce your meat, wool and butter accounts with, us, by, say, £10,000,000 to £15,000,000 (surely you could do that), it will still further increaso our insolvency, in this connection it is no digression to state that it was pitiful to seo the paltry mobs of sheep oil your magnificent pastures last year, like the few animals in a "child’s Noah’s Ark’ scattered around, while the prices for lamb, mutton and wool were so attractive. You are hopelessly extravagant, meantime, and are taking grave risks for the future, are you not? "In the past there existed plenty of* opportunities for the practical and thrifty settler, but- the margin for the coming one is narrowed out of sight. Cash transactions for land are, and have been, against the laws of nature, or equal to that, and mortgages exist in a degree quite foreign to your land people. A glance through the liles of our Mercantile Gazette will prove the verity of this statement. Like llawdon Crawley in ‘Vanity Fair,’ ‘it costs mo so much, at least, I owe that for it.’ So then, a large proportion of our landowners liavo a long way to run for the title deeds. That wo need population, and an enormous increase of population, is appallingly evident. Fancy a country equal in size to Britain with one and a quarter million, or thereby, of population. Still, the openings now ,ior the comparatively impecunious immigrant have narrowed down considerably, and for the lost loafer or ‘silver tail’ type are nowhere. We have them for export, or, shall I say, re-export!

“I have addressed myself 'Solely to the individual with capital, who is more needed under existing circumstances, and who could, with a good start, immediately 'absorb labour, but at present, and until he can buy at value, I see no opening. I strongly advise caution meantime, and, although New Zealand as a country deserves all praise it lias received in the past, it has, financially speaking, been in 'bad guidin’ and worse haft.’ and ‘the evil that men do lives aftei them.'—l am, etc., Jock.”

Wool Great Britain. America. .... £9,078,000 £872,000 Butter .... £9,097,000 £271,000 4'fi HOP 000 Meat £8,995,000 £14