THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1907. THE POPULATION QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13392, 22 January 1907, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1907. THE POPULATION QUESTION.

When the London Times stated, a day or two ago, in commenting upon Lord Northeote's speech, that while, the cry " Australia for the Australians" is very good it is equally good and necessary that there should be enough Australians for Australia, it gave utterance to a sentiment, with which all intelligent colonists must agree. I'or what is true of Australia is true of every under - populated colony throughout the Empire, and particularly true of New Zealand. The necessity for energetic action on the part of this colony has been repeatedly insisted upon in these columns, and we must again call public attention to the urgency of strengthening our population by desirable immigrants ii we would claim the right and have the power to exclude undesirable immigrants. We are a North European State, a British State, but to remain British we must completely settle the colony with British stock or with those kindred North European stocks which in everything but language are identical with ourselves and which in a single generation become absolutely and inseparably identical. We cannot hold the colony with a population much less in number than it can comfortably carry, any more than we can develop it to its full carrying capacity while our industries are restricted and our progress retarded by sheer lack of sufficient labour force. The labour situation in New Zealand at the present time is quite phenomenal. We have few. if any, industries which can afford to pay those fancifully high wages which might induce fin influx of European immigration from the adjacent shores of the Pacific, and even if we had «uch industries experience has shown that the immigration induced by extraordinary wages is of a very floating description, and is in the habit of rushing away as rapidly as it rushes in. What we want is the immigration of steady and serious people, who come to make their homes here and to help in the task of building the future State ; and these can bestbe drawn by the prospect of the fair and permanent wages this colony can afford to pay and does pay, and by the inducement of the small freehold, which is the heart's desire of every English-speaking agriculturist. Fair wages and permanent employment are offering in scores of hampered industries, and there are many hundred thousand acres which have not yet btvn touched by the axe of the pioneer. We say that the best interests of the colony, industrially and politically, are dependent upon a sound immigration policy, and that it is the duty of the Government not only to keep Now Zealand for the New Zealanders but to provide sufficient New Zealanders for New Zealand.

But the colony is not only being affected industrially by a deficiency in the available supply of men—and this at a. time when we are beginning to have forced upon us the value of men in the effective occupation of the country and in the science of self-defence—but it is being affected socially to an unprecedented degree by an increasing deficiency in the supply of domestic servants. The factory has tapped at its source the available local supply, and though girls and young women are accepting with considerable unanimity the modern gospel that "a, lass is as good as a lad this acceptance seems rather to limit the number entering domestic service than otherwise, while the demand in this class of labour largely and steadily increases. It may be said, of course, that the kitchen must compete with the workroom, but the competition is hardly a wages one, and in any ease is so much a matter of personal predilection that the kitchen has apparently no chance in the contest. We sometimes hear of the objection able situation, where the food is inferior, the work excessive, the pay low, and the accommodation bad, but- nobody who is acquainted with the domestic service problem dreams of paying any attention to such 'preposterous allegations. The Auckland housewife- as everywhere in the colony —makes every effort to retain in her service any capable " help" and is frequently compelled to make the same effort to retain very incapable " help." In the city and in the country, in large establishments and in small ones, in hotels and boarding-houses, as in ordinary homos, there is the same universal complaint. 1 lie dearth of this class of labour is already affecting the domestic life of the colony and leading in a perceptible 'degree to the compulsory abandonment of the home in favour of the hotel and boarding-house. For the advantage in securing the limited amount of labour available naturally lies with the larger establishment. Possibly this may all be a mere phase in the social evolution of the race, but then again it may only be a phase— and a very disagreeable phase—of an industrial problem which intelligent organisation can alleviate or remove. In any case there are to-day in New Zealand thousands of housewives able and willing to pay for domestic assistance wages which are unknown in the United Kingdom, and to offer conditions as to hours, food and accommodation which would there be considered exceptional. The colony requires population and here are some thousands of situations. which nobody wishes to fill, waiting for immigrants of the right class. This is a phase of the immigration question which ought to engage the attention of the Government. A sclicmo could easily fee

worked out by which a part of the assistance granted could be repaid in the colony, for any capable domestic servant can earn here from £30 per annum upwards. If tin* Government is not disposed to undertake an immigration which is entirely within its functions, and which has frequently been organised and encouraged where the necessity was not nearly as great as in New Zealand at the present time, a private organisation might be established and by obtaining the necessary administrative permission to indenture domestic servants might relieve the strain. How great that strain is may be gathered from the estimate that in Auckland province alone a thousand domestic situations could be found in a few days, for suitable young women, without disturbing the labour market in the slightest degree.