Manawatu Daily Times SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1928. IMMIGRATION-QUANTTY OR QUALITY.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2778, 20 October 1923, Page 4

Manawatu Daily Times SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1928. IMMIGRATION-QUANTTY OR QUALITY.

j Interest m tlifc mmigtffcttoTi Question !has been quickened toy t&c report presented to the Wellington Chamber of | Commerce the ot'lier day by its Development Committe. • Mr. Letgu Hunt, the chatr-aan ot the Committee, has specialised, so to speak, on this question, and has collected a vast! amount 'of information concerning the! movements of population througho-at; the British Empire, which enables Elm to discuss it with understanding; and authority. In presenting: the re-j port on behalf of the Committee, he] specially emphasised the importance j of dissociating it fwm polities. It wasi a natiofral question of vital "concern to the whole of the community, he said,: and should not constitute a, bone of; prejudiced and bittfiM- contention be-j tween the political parties. Some of the Labour people feave read into this! a sinister attempt to blind the public to the •■ claim* 'of the workers to "tie, protected from exploitation and un-; employment. But as & matter of fact the Committee 'was careful to <expta4«i that its puit>osi was not merely to; adequately populate the country, but! more particularly to develop its resource* along lines that would im-; prove the conditions of the whole! community. One of the points made; by Mr. Hunt was that the Dominion in encourageing immigration "should offer attractions that would appeal to the most helpful citizen. The Commit-! tee.inthe course of >irs ivport.expressedj regret that the members of the Over-i seas Settlement -Delegation, who wfer«j in the Dominion a little tvhlle as*,; wei<e not given better opporttiWittes W i see and fully understand the advan-' : tages this country offers to emigrants;

from the Old Country. It drew com-, parisons, unfavourable to New Zea-j land. There certainly seemed to to«| some ground l'or complaint. But th«< Under Secretary oi Lands has ex-j plained that the delegates visited Au»-| iTalia to *ee the initiation of an Im-j perial scheme of Settlement, whicn' has not 'been adopted here, and they; came to New 'Zealand only to gratify! a personal desir* to see this country.! There "was really no necessity for! them to come here—as the Under Seo-| rotary puts it .just a little unhappily— '■ and they appear to have been treated accordingly. The Under Secretary alsb claims that under the New Zealand.: nominated -system, which provides a substantial part of the passage money and ensures •employment upon arrival here, 25,000 people have been brought to New Zealand during the last thre*j years, and that to this extent tne : population r>'f the Dominion has been increased -without prejudicing any or the lOoal Industries concerned. There; appears to be a wrae difference between the class of immigrants the' Committed of the (Chamber of Commerce has in view and the class the! Government is Winging to the coun-: try under the nominated system. Mr. Hunt and his ColleagttteS particularly want to see farmers, small and large,, manufacturers, capitalists and evenj speculators, of the legitimate kind,} transferring their activities, or, at any' rate, part of them, from the Old Country to the dominion. The Go- 1 vernment, on ths other hand, applies; only the test fct nomination to tnej people ft assists to the "country. Juag-! ing from the batches of immigrants! that arrive in Wellington from time' to time under the existing- system, tne' physical standard demanded is not a very high one. Bust whait is even oi more conseqnfcnce, the gjre&t majorityj of the new arrivals have neither thej ewsans «©r the qualifications to enwrj upon the development work, Mrj Hunt and his colleagues wish to see! seriously att&cfced. The fc'reat bulk <©*• them enter the raakfcs of the as --their assigned aad permanent! place. There they doubtless reader! useful and creditable service to the' community, but they do not satisfy) the fell needs <>£ the country, andi would not, were they multiplied a! hundred times. The "New Zealand; Times'* has «, word or two to say in to the comments or the Under 'Secretary of lands. *"The official* staterae-JiV *ts ways, "tells uc that, no other «v#rsea Dominion has la the same time absorbed as many immigrants as this Dominion has. That if; a sotJrtie at sftttsraetion, of. course,! though not a thing for flag-ftylng. Bttt | the essential point is that the scheme

is not. aßßttlemsht. Scheme, The best; that can be said for it is that it would be a good adjUttet to a settlement Scheme. Its addition to the general population is but a dribble compared to the flood of migration settlement We so urgently redUii'e\" That, 61 course, is the position irt ft nutshell The nominated syitgffi bangs' to the Dominion neither* the numbers, nor, in full measufe, the class that It re* dbires, and Catt&drt, the Argentine and Australia are attracting people whd would bo better off and more welcdni« heie. If IS one of the questions* Ofl ! which the Prime Minister should | obtain irtUeh infof{nation before his 1 return.