EMPIRE MIGRATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 224, 20 August 1938, Page 11

EMPIRE MIGRATION.

DOMINION’S SHARE. REFERENCES IN THE HOUSE. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) AVELLINGTON, Aug. 20. Immigration occupied some attention in a somewhat attenuated House of Representatives, yesterday afternoon, the question arising on the Labour Department’s vote, which included £7BO for passages for immigrants. Mr J. Hargest asked if these were the ten carpentefs brought out to Auckland. Was it the Government’s policy to bring out tradesmen? There was a growing feeling that the time had come when, in view of the' almost static population of the Dominion, some inducement should be offered immigrants of suitable type. First, said Mr Hargest, we should turn to Britain and Ireland, and if people with some capital and technical skill could be obtained it would be a service to the country. As members on both sides of the House were sponsoring the Five Millions Club proposal it showed that there was a general feeling in favour of resuming immigration. There had been a suggestion that German Jews were wanting to come and make homes for themselves, and he felt that, failing a sufficient response from the United Kingdom, the Northern European peoples should be considered, as New Zealand had in years past obtained good settlers from that source. Mr W. J. Broadfoot stated that he was impressed with the value of the Fairbridge scheme, which he had investigated in Western Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales. Under this scheme young people were brought out and properly trained. The whole subject had become so important that the Government might well set up a Royal Commission to go into all phases of it. “Let us call it development of the Empire,’’ suggested Mr Broadfoot. The Minister of Labour (Mr H. T. Armstrong) stated in reply, after several members had briefly supported the suggestion for consideration of resumed assisted immigration, that there had been no change in the Government’s policy. The department’s report showed that assisted passages were granted in approved cases to members of families, some of whom had previously received assistance, and it enabled members of the family who had been left behind to follow their relatives to New Zealand. Such assistance was quite reasonable, and, fortunately, twothirds of the expenditure was recoverable from the immigrant and the Imperial Government in equal proportions.