Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1936 THE EMPIRE'S EMPTY SPACES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 26 November 1936, Page 6

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1936 THE EMPIRE'S EMPTY SPACES

THE news that the Hon. W. Nash, New Zealand’s Minister of Finance (who is in England) has been invited to confer with members of the British Cabinet and departmental experts on the subject of migration, indicates that responsible statesmen in Britain and this country are anxious to solve the problems presented by England’s congested areas and empty spaces. The British Government desires to ascertain the opinion of the Dominions’ Governments upon the (British) Oversea Settlement Board’s report, and New Zealand’s Finance Minister will be interested “to know the British views on migration.” In brief, the Home Government wishes to know the Dominion’s land policy in relation to prospective immigrants, and the New Zealand Government will be interested to learn what the British Government is prepared to do in the matter of financing any proposal of the nature indicated. ( The issues at stake are very important. The Dominions of the Pacific need to increase their populations for obvious reasons, and Britain’s congested areas would be a positive source of weakness if she were involved in another European war. Furthermore, fit is evident that the expansion of the'British race in the wide and thinly-populated areas of the Dominions will, if judiciously carried out, not ony relief/e Britain’s congestion, but strengthen the position of the Dominions. 'The discussions which Mr Nash "will have with

members of the British Government can only be preliminary. The decisive discussions will take place when, prior to the King’s Coronation, the Premiers of the Dominions will be assembled in London for the purpose of doing honour to His Majesty. It is expected that they will meet next May, and the people of the Dominions and of Great Britain will expect them to propound some equitable and effective plan for filling the Dominions’ dangerously empty spaces with physically fit and carefully selected British folk who are willing and anxious to establish themselves in lands across the sea. The problems presented by migration from Britain to the Dominions are not new. They were solved by those who, in the Victorian era, planned the settlement of those widely scattered territories which to-day are Dominions. What was done then can be done again—and on a larger scale. All that is needed is statesmanship and a sound and liberal financial scheme. Staunch and venturesome British folk will do the rest, and do it as effectually as did the pioneers, who, in the last century, laid the foundations of the Dominions’ greatness and prosperity.