THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1914. SYSTEMATISED MIGRATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1914. SYSTEMATISED MIGRATION.

The High Commissioner for New Zealand, in a speech at a dinner given in his honour by the AngloSaxon Club, suggested that the oversight of emigration from Great Britain should be undertaken by an Imperial Council consisting of representatives of the Home Country and of the Overseas Dominions. Mr. Mackenzie is in the best position to judge of the possibilities of success resulting from such an effort. His experience in New Zealand and in London has enabled him to see the difficulties at both ends. There is a constant flow of emigration from Great Britain, and a constant need in the Overseas Dominions for certain classes of immigrants. The prospective emigrant has difficulty in deciding which country his choice should ! fall upon; all the Overseas Eomin- • ions are constantly receiving a large proportion -of unsuitables either wholly unfitted by training for their new life or fitted only for success in occupations already well filled in the country of their selection. It is evident that the existing machinery is defective. Each Dominion has its London office and publishes its own literature; but at best the literature can only generalise; the officials are not available to residents in the provinces; and, if we can apply broad general rules to immigration, the first and safest would be that the most suitable emigrants can be found in the provinces. The Dominions Royal Commission has partially dealt with the migration difficulties in its interim reports. The commissioners have sweepingly condemned the present conditions of emigration as giving no reasonable chance of the proper material for each Dominion being chosen to the exclusion of the unfit. The chief drawback in their view is that the whole of the primary machinery of migration is in the hands of agents whose profits depend on the commissions they receive. They ask the question " Can the duty of describing the attractions and drawbacks of a Dominion be safely left to an interested passage agent There can be but one answer to this. The system stands self-condemned.

In urging the establishment of an Imperial Council to control immigration Mr. Mackenzie touched on England's interest in the project. This needs to be emphasised for in England there is still an influential political school which counts every emigrant a loss whether he goes to New Zealand or to Mexico. Even the report of the Dominions Commission is slightly coloured with this narrow view, but the Commissioners conclude that if the problem is attacked broadly and Imperially migration may be regulated to the advantage of the whole Empire. Certainly England can benefit by the systematic training for overseas life of youths who are in danger of drifting into blind alley occupations, and of becoming a charge on the state; the entire Empire can benefit by the whole stream of British emigration being j directed to British countries; the British race can never lose by migration arrangements which result in opening every opportunity to our own people under our own flag. An Imperial Council could do much to further this object; it could give disinterested advice regarding the prospects in all the Overseas Dominions, and thus save many immigrants from certain loss and disappointment. The Dominions Commission suggests a number of alternative courses, including the recruiting of juvenile emigrants at the British Labour exchanges, the licensing of passenger agents by the Board of Trade and the submission of all private circulars and advertisements to the Emigrants Information Office or to the representatives of the Dominion to which they relate. None of these plans would seem to meet the colonial ideas of selection or to give emigrants an assurance of the accurate information which might be expected from a responsible and well-staffed Imperial Council. The Commission's inquiries, however, are not complete. They are to be further prosecuted in Canada, and until the Canadian view has been ascertained there is little hope of the establishment of an effective Empire combination such as Mr. Mackenzie suggests. Meantime the High Commissioner's office can do something to direct suitable immigrants to New Zealand and to discourage and reject the unsuitable I and the unfit.