BRITISH EMIGRATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17663, 27 December 1920, Page 4

BRITISH EMIGRATION.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand has always been a strong advocate of keeping British migration within the Empire. He could do a service to the Empire as well as a service to New Zealand by seizing the present opportunity of translating a sound principle into the best and most efficient practice. It"Ts many years since a British Government has been so favourably disposed, to emigration; it is to be hoped that the period of depression in the United Kingdom which has created that frame of mind will pass speedily; many more years may elapse before Britain is again urgently seeking outlets for a surplus population. The present is, therefore, a time for exceptional energy and exceptional organisation in the guidance of migration. A good deal has been done, o as is shown by recent arrivals of immigrant ships, but it has been made evident that the Dominion Governments are leaving too much to the British Government, and, in its turn, the British Government is leaving too much to shipping companies and their agents. While there is unemployment in Britain, the flow of emigration is being limited by lack of shipping, immigrants to New Zealand are being landed, and sometimes stranded, in Australia from the same cause, yet ships are being laid up because freights are declining and the price of coal advancing. In to-day's cablegrams it is suggested that ships might be rapidly fitted out to carry immigrants, and that the British Government may find money for public works within the Dominions to which the migration is directed.' These ideas are associated with migration schemes which may be discussed at the next Imperial Conference, in May or June. The subject certainly merits a prominent place on the agenda of the Imperial ..Conference, but it would be folly to leave until June anything that can be safely done now. New Zealand, for instance, need not wait for any British decision to fit and charter ships. As the British Government is providing full passage-money for ex-service men, the loss, after paying for fitting and charter, need not be heavy, and if it gave us the right to select every emigrant the Dominion would get a good return for its money by expediting railway and road construction and by providing labour for essential industries that are now grievously short-handed. Similarly, loans are capable of negotiation without an Imperial conference, and it is not at all improbable that the available British money will go to the Dominions that have the enterprise to initiate their own schemes of immigration and employment. New Zealand is in pressing need of men who are able and willing to assist in the development of the country, and their selection should neither be left to chance nor allowed to stand over until the Imperial Conference meets.