MIGRATION QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19658, 9 June 1927, Page 12

MIGRATION QUESTION.

WHAT NEW ZEALAND CAN DO. BISHOP INGRAM'S CONCLUSIONS. " TEN THOUSAND A YEAR." The question of migration, an investigation of which was the principal object of his recent visit to New Zealand, is dealt with by the Bishop of London, Dr. Winnington Ingram, in an article on New Zealand, which recently appeared in the Times. The bishop says: " After three-quarters of an hour's talk with the Prime Minister and three-quarters of an hour with the Governor-General and the same with th© Labour Party, I have come to the conclusion that New Zealand can absorb at present 10,000 people a year, but not more, at present. The Labour Party are very much frightened by the appearance for the first time of a few hundreds of unemployed in their cities; the slump in New Zealand butter in Tooley Street has hit the farmers; land went up to an exaggerated price during the butter boom before and after the war, and some men are " walking off" their farms, being quite unable to pay the mortgages which they ought never to have contracted to pay. " But all these things will settle down in time, and meanwhile the Government are probably right in discouraging migration for a few months until they have done so; but even this, the Prime Minister explained, does not apply to farm lads, domestic servants, or certain classes of labour. One thing is quite clear. New Zealand can absorb any number of farm lads who are willing to go on to the land. Flock House is a gift from the farmers of New Zealand to the children of the sailors who lost their lives in the war, and is an excellent example of what should be done. " These English boys are trained for six months on a farm of 8000 acres, and arc ' gobbled up ' by the farmers of the back blocks at £1 a week and their keep. Many of them can save in a few years enough to start on their own; but even they would do well to wait till prices have found their proper level. One lad sent out by the Church Emigration Society got three days off to come and see us; he had had three rises in six and was now getting 37s 6d a week and his keep."