A NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY

Free Lance, Volume XVIII, Issue 972, 13 March 1919, Page 6

A NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY

How the Absent Ministers Might Help. have elsewhere referred to the * * shortage of labour which is alleged to be obstructing tjie completion of various public works, and, to. the suggestion that a renewal of a vigorous, well devised system of Staterassisted immigration can, best enablethe Public Works Department to. surmount this particular obstacle; It is no good Sir Wm. Fraser telling us tlje Dominion wants more; people. : VWliat • is required is proitnpt and energetic action by the Government to get those peo-r pie. There must, be- scores of thousands of British workers wh6j now: the war is over, are casting their, ,eyes to the Overseas Dominions,' hoping there to found new homes. VV.hatj wo should like to ask the. Government, is-being done to attract these people ? Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward do not spend all their time attending the Peace'CoW ference session. 'Ih.ey.Jiftye had,, all the banqueting and junketing they want— and probably more than they wanted— and as for their visits to yarious camps and hospitals .where New . .-Zealandors a J" e - stationed, the men have no need of their fine speeches. The two. Ministers should busy themselves most energet-

ically with organising a new immigra-tion-system under which the right class of immigrant would be secured. Even when all the returned soldiers are back • the Dominion will still require a special strengthening in the way of immigration, and that for some years to come. A country like this ought to be able to support eight or ten millions of people, if only, email settlement and more intense cultivation were introduced.