LAND SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20074, 11 October 1928, Page 14

LAND SETTLEMENT.

Sir, —May I point out through your widely-read columns tliat there is a distinct difference between assisted immigration into this Dominion as it has obtained in the past and what is being done under the Empire Settlement Act in Canada, Australia and South Africa? Canada is Die country which, within the Empire, is annually absorbing the greatest number of migrants, and wo have, on the one hand, the assurance of Lord Lovat that K9 per cent, of the British settlers are a success, and, on the other, that that Dominion is enjoying a period of phenomenal prosperity* The essential difference appears to be that Canada has an effective policy efficiently carried out by a Land Settlement Board, and in New Zealand we have nothing approaching this. In the 1 United States there is an example of a country built a nation from (lie overflow population of the world, bub their history is a striking negation of the theory that a rapid increase of population tends, owing to congestion of the labour market, to a fall in wages, and unemployment. • So far as New Zealand is concerned, we want settlement and development of our natural resources by every possible means, and we want it as quickly as possible. With many aspirants for political honours in the field, it would seem undesirable that there should be any clouding of this outstanding and urgent problem, which, while closely related to immigration, is not identical.

N. G. GRmnr-E