IMMIGRATION?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 29 October 1926, Page 8

IMMIGRATION?

(To TIIO Editor.) Sir, —Regarding the above subject it is evident that a good oeal of anxiety exists in the public mind, as may be seen in current journals. The question is: Can the stream of migrants, apparently without capital, now arriving settle themselves on (lie land where they are most wanted? If they could acquire small sections of good land. n living would he possible under intense cultivation; even three or four acres would suffice with the chance of obtaining luntsidc ,world; but ; lmw can anything be done without money to start with? How many would he content to start thus from zero? Even to build a slab whare nr a small house of sawn stuff, doing some fencing, and making a. beginning on the smallest scale would apparently be beyond iimse now reaching these shores, hence the drift to the towns which all must, deprecate.

It may well he asked if this mode of dealing with the surplus population is not possible in the Old Land before, sending them thirteen thousand miles to do exactly the same things under Austral skies! It seems to be a fixed idea in Britain that we. in the colonies can extend a wide defence against the ills that attend, the situation; but it would be a judicious thing to call a halt in immigration, and see if the thousands now in New Zealand can arrange themselves or he arranged before the authorities bring about a domestic trouble of the first order. The financial and economic state here does not warrant risks being taken—unemployment* is still acute and the general outlook not what we could wish—the drama of the time, demands the utmost caution in what is now being attempted.—l am etc., SCRUTATOR.