DOMINION IMMIGRATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18566, 26 November 1923, Page 11

DOMINION IMMIGRATION.

TEN THOUSAND A YEAR.

LAND AVAILABLE FOR FARMERS.

A statement regarding the progress and prospects of migration to New Zealand was recently given to the London Morning Post by Mr. Massey. He said the Dominion has not the huge area of undeveloped lands of some of the larger countries of the Empire.' " Few, if any, of our available lands are remote from settlement and railways. We have available for settlement (I quote from the last Budget), 508,000 acres, with 401,742 acres under survey, and with preparations being made 'to survey an additional 485,598 acres. The total area of Crown lands in New Zealand available for. future disposal by ballot or otherwise, is set out in the last report of the Lands Department as 2,916,000 acres. " Probably a certain proportion of this total is suitable only "for pastoral purposes. For immigrants with farming experience, and with a moderate amount of capital, there axe lands immediately available, and for those willing to take employment on farms, and who are industrious and thrifty, the opportunities of becoming prosperous settlers are undoubtedly there. Many thousands of our nresent successful settlers came to New Zealand without capital, found employment on farms, and ultimately became owners of the land they cultivated. The prevailing land values 'in New' Zealand, as in other countries, are according to the returns obtained from the soil. In New Zealand the stock do not require to be housed in the " winter months, owing to the mild climate, and hence the land has a higher value than in countries whero this expense has to be considered. /

" New Zealand does not by any means confine her immigration activities to the attraction of actual settlers on farm Jands. Nor is it advisable that she should. Artisans, skilled labourers, domestics, and generally industrious people of all walks 'Of life, she welcomes, and assists w\ith their passage expenses, -Under the Dominion's recent agreement with the British Government, nominated immigrants from the Unit.i Kingdom have the most liberal passage terms offered them; while in the Dominion the most complete arrangements exist for their reception and direction to their destinations. Very few industrious and reliable men migrating to the Dominion fail to make good. " New Zealand expects to take' ten thousand British immigrants per annum from Great Britain, and to assist them with their passages to the Dominions," said Mr. Massey. "We have been doing this for the past «two or three years, except in the case of a few months of acute depression last year."