THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1928. PEOPLING THE EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20072, 9 October 1928, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1928. PEOPLING THE EMPIRE.

Two results may confidently be expected from Lord Lovat's visit to New Zealand. One is the broadening of thought about Imperial migration, and the other the defining of means by which the Empire Settlement scheme can best bo given effect here. Seemingly alien in outlook, turning attention respectively away from and to these southern British Isles, they are part and parcel of one need of the hour. The prevalent tendency is to attach chief importance to the second, a habit in us that Lord Lovat will readily forgive when he recalls our comparative isolation as the Dominion most femoto from the Motherland and the self-conscious-ness inevitably marking our adolescent stage of development. We arc not, however, as he will soon discover for himself, aloof in spirit. Loyalty laughs at the map, and the Motherland has had proof that we have well learned the lesson of the linking seaway by which he has travelled so far on his embassy. And into our adolescence there has come a touch of that social mood, which longs for responsible service to a larger world than our colonial infancy knew. For what he says of that self-forgetting service we are not wholly unprepared: we are giving more heed to our history as an offshoot of the parent tree, and feeling a pride greater than of yore in the enlarging space made for our growth in that splendid company; and it is but yesterday that his chief, Mr. A.mery, was schooling us afresh to think in terms of the whole British realm. So, as lie begins his fortnight amongst us, he may take heart of grace. A little and a young and a far land this New Zealand of ours may be, and overmuch wrapped up as yet in concern for itself; but even "the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts," and the beckonings of maturity are calling already in ourselves to widening vistas and larger tasks. Unemployment, in Britain and in this Dominion, cannot be forgotten altogether as Lord Lovat's mission is pursued in this land, and ho has himself made contact with our prevailing way of envisaging British emigration hither. There is a current. fear —we can be quite frank j about it—that the Empire Settlement scheme is a device to transfer a burden from the Motherland's shoulders to those of her offspring ; and some of them, this land for one, have a burden of their own of this selfsame sort. Imperial migration has therefore been habitually discussed among us of late as if unemployment were the chief factor to be considered. Lord Lovat's words should help us to see that even if unemployment in Britain had not given a special urge to the scheme, it would have been propounded and ought to have been propounded quite apart from any pressure of the kind. In the adequate distribution of the Empire's people there is a task to be undertaken, quite apart from the desirability of finding work in Britain overseas for those who are workless in the Britain they have looked on as their abiding home: To develop the whole realm's resources, to people unoccupied and half-occupied British lands with folk of the old stock, to possess in reality the nominal British possessions—it is in phrases such as these that the question must be discussed. In course of time, for the effect of a period of ■ industrial depression in Britain has merely ante-dated and emphasised a situation bound to arise, the surplus people of the Motherland should find their way across the sea. it is but right that they should follow the Hag in preference to making homes among alien folk, that they should fill the spaces where British law already runs, that they should thus help to make strong and prosperous the entire Imperial domain. On our part, needing population, it is best that our own folk and not others should come to our aid; the unemployment we are experiencing is but a passing phase, so ample arc our land's natural resources; and whatever prudence may suggest of checking for a little the flow of immigrant's, to build an enduring dam against it is unthinkable. If by taking them we can assist to solvo the Motherland's problem, so much the better; but our own requirements dictate a policy of welcome. It was by this means that New Zealand was given to us: by this means, in part, we shall come to the full heritage of those earlier days of migration.

Coming to us by way of Canada, Lord Lovat has met an object lesson that should be taken to heart hereabouts. Into that Dominion there has been an increasing flow of foreign people. This incursion from various lands of Europe has risen steadily from 22 per cent, in 1921 to 50 per cent, in 1927, whilo the British inflow, has fallen from -17 per cent.' to per cent., and the American from :il per cent, to 10 per cent. During the first four months of this year, out of 90,000' immigrants, ISG per cent, were British, 12 pel cent. American, and 52 per cent, were Continental. These figures gain in momentous significance from the fact that only 56 per cent, of Canada's population is British. If the present trend is not checked, that slender majority will disappear. It may be said that these figures have little meaning here. The objection is foolish. "Thero are great and increasing nations about us" is Lord Lovat's cogent answer, I and we must be up and doing. Pressure from the Orient; is an increasing possibility throughout the Pacific, added to the certainty that European peoples arc looking this way. Acta of s Parliament framed to exclude foreigners are worth

little as protective measures unless they are accompanied by a determination to have British folk here. To the aphorism that nature abhors a vacuum can be reasonably appended the truth that multiplying human nature will not for ever tolerate empty spaces. Our best ramparts are men and women of our own kith and kin. These are the ideas—not by any means new but in danger of being forgotten—that Lord Lovat expressly hopes "to bring down to earth." Migration must be thought out in , the light they give, riot merely with reference to unemployment here or anywhere else.