IMMIGRATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14375, 21 May 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

IMMIGRATION.

: BY THE REV. JAMES MILNE, M.A. Men are the best asset of a nation, a ountry exists for its inhabitants, life is he great thing. It is for the nation then o care for men, for the country to conefn itself about its ) inhabitants, above ill, for the life to grow. This is why mmigration is a matter of imperial and ocal, aye, of universal interest to us. .-- It is of imperial interest, because New Zealand, as one of the members of the K>dy of our Empire, is concerned with all vhich pertains: to ; the well-being of that tody, which undoubtedly immigration loes. It is of the utmost importance ' for he Empire that it should be possessed )f an abundant, strong and virile manlood, and so it becomes a national duty o further this end in every part -of the i Empire. Some of us know by personal experience, others by well-authenticated eports, of the deplorable conditions of jvercrowding which exist to a greater or ess extent in all the great centres- of Dopulation at Home. ' Uuder such conlitions, which we need not here particuarise, it is universally admitted that it s almost impossible for children to grow up strong and healthy. It is true that lie conditions themselves to a -certain exent could be remedied locally. :> Efforts lave already been made legislatively to ittract the people back to the land, from which they tend to drift continually to ihe towns and cities. What has been lone in the past in this direction, is as nothing to what is likely to be done in the more immediate future, for there ire indications that the mind .ofJ the mother country is awaking to the consciousness of :? many social anomalies which must be banished from its borders. Everywhere at Home, in the State -as elsewhere, a social conscience is growing, and men of all political parties are bent On ameliorating the lot of their less fortunate fellows. Increasingly it is recognised that to think imperially is not incompatible with thinking socially. .At this we imperialists overseas profoundly rejoice, but in view of the comparatively quick march of social progress in our new countries, it is well for us to remember how slow and, halting and laboured must any progress in that direction be in a land of venerable institutions and of interests vested throughout ages. This is why, while the little ones languish in the slums of our Home cities, it is ' ours in more ; favoured lands, not merely by social enactment among ourselves to point out and encourage our Home legislators to the way of their relief;•; but remembering the real difficulties to'be encountered in work of reform there, :to do our part now and here to relieve the congestion at Home. ; What for us is ? immigration • concerns the old country much •:. and in various ways as emigration. » Thou" sands leave its shores annually, mostly [or our colonies and America. Those going in this latter direction are hot: really md .ultimately lost to 'us, for hey go where ; they are readily absorbed, to, build up a country, to become part of a people . whose common tongue and many kindred associations indicate a common destiny with ourselves.. It is not necessarily the denizens ■ of the overcrowded cities, who .thus ;in their thousands annually leave the shores of Great Britain. Contrariwise, many if not most of them hail from the'country districts, the bone and sinew of : the * land. ;y. Thus emigration .is not without its serious v aspect to A the lovers of J England, Scotland, and Ireland, yet the passing thus of their hardy sons of toil, albeit they pass not from the congested centres themselves, yet to -a. certain extent relieves the pressure thereImmigration becomes 'a matter,of local interest to us when we consider what 1 we are doing to attract Home emigrants to our Dominion's shores, '•- In % view of congestion at Home, : this is undoubtedly) our duty. The line of duty is generally the way of. ultimate 'profit. Is it so in this case ?■■ Are we in New Zealand in need of emigrants from Home ? Should >we encourage immigration ? The 5 answer is in ; the affirmative. Certainly, but f for the distance Jof , our Dominion from I the 'British isles, - and) other) considerations, we might have to qualify ; our ■-; affirmative- answer. However attractive New Zealand may be climatically and legislatively to the average emigrant from Home, the long sea voyage is a barrier to ■ many, who, knowing nothing of the ocean beyond the dread born Of ignorance, cannot conceive the joy of ) a six) or) eight weeks' trip on a vessel of 10,000 tonnage or more. Consequently Canada, spite of its winter rigours, by reason of its readier accessibility is preferred. ) Further, that «-reat promoter of colonisation, land,' is much more readily procurable in Canada than in New Zealand. This) fact in itself, apart from the still further consideration of the increased fare -to be paid, should our beautiful southern be preferred to the great western Dominion, is sufficient to explain " why, while thousands rush continually to Canada, so few comparatively seek our, shores. This is why we can well afford -to offer greater inducements to immigration. That we could > accommodate thousands, aye, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, our sparsely populated plains and valleys, our as yet bush-covered hill-sides abundantly testify. Only we do not want the hun-> dreds of thousands or even the thousands to come at once. Undoubtedly,) for a, country, it is the growth of its r population which means prosperity. It may sound paradoxical, nevertheless it is true, that the men who work, themselves make work. -The more mouths to be filled, the more forms to be clothed )in a country, the better will it be for the industry, trade and general prosperity of that country. - - ■--:.■■ - ; ~)_,■..-)-;-'-•; Yet immigration, while being encouriged in ■ every, possible way, "should be just as surely regulated. Suppose, e.g., a, thousand immigrants could be well admitted into New Zealand to-morrow, the men to assist in our growing dairying industry, the, women) to enter domestic service, it would be a thousand pities, if instead of these there were ) admitted as many artisans , and factory workers not at the time » required, who, persisting in abiding by their particular callings, should. ;ven were it possible to find work for all of greatly disorganise the particular industries with which they were associated. Providing regulation could .be properly wrought, we dare to affirm it would pay us to hold out -far greater inducements to immigrants than we do: in ) the ) way of greatly reduced if "not. free passages to the class or classes of immigrants, :at any time specially desired. Such regulation could be best enforced by co-opera-tion in the matter between the country and ourselves. To a certain extent this is already being done, but the ideal in the matter should be the more easily approached, Were the mutual responsibility of the old country and our colony emphasised by that ; imperial) federation, which) should make each part of the Empire realise its unity with , the whole. Thus are we surely led to the thought of the universal interest of immigration, for any advantages won for) the Empire through) its development -could only be maintained in proportion as they were extended to other nations. In this as alike in every other policy of our! Empire, its strength will be, found and maintained through the, exercise of a 6trong yet reasonable charityj- which beginning at ) home ;) stays v hot) there. It )is for the true ) imperialist to ) federate) the Empire, that the advantages won ' may be extended on equal terms to others. '- :