HELPING INDUSTRIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20303, 10 July 1929, Page 12

HELPING INDUSTRIES.

AIDS FROM IMMIGRATION.

PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. r

VIEWS OF GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

[HY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION .J WELLINGTON, Tuesday.

Taking the secondary industries as the keynote of his address the Governor-Gen-era!, Sir Charles Fcrgusson, at the opening of the Wellington Winter Show, suggested that practically the only way in which to further advance the second.try industries in New Zealand was by the encouragement of immigration, thereby creating tho only market there could be for the present for Dominion products—a borne market.

"How are the secondary' industries going to flourish V asked His Excellency. At present they could not get beyond a certain point unlil they had a bigger population. That was how it struck him. They must have a sufficiently large homo market in which to sell their goods from the secondary industries, and larger production at reasonably low cost. "What is going to be our population ?" asked Sir Chariot At present he was told that owing vo necessity thero could bo no increase in immigration in New Zealand. "I must accept that as being an economic necessity," he continued, "but it does not prevent nio from lamenting the fact that there should be any restriction put on the development of tho population in this country. It must be remembered that the immigrants who come lo this country aro not the people who take tho bread out of our mouths.

"Immigrants, provided they aro of the right sort, are going to be an asset to the country. They are going to 1)0 producers, and jnorc than that, they are going <o bp consumers. What they aro going to consume arc the products of our secondary industries. Double your population and your industries will develop in proportion. It is a controversial matter, but a matter well brought forward for discussion is whether, with the necessity of limiting immigration, wo should not so try to arrange matters that wo welcome immigrants so long as they aro of the right stamp. By the right stami) I mean those who come out prepared to work 011 the land. We do not want them to come into our limited population and augment tho already overcrowded cities. There is ample scope for them in developing the primary products of the country and working on the land. " I suggest that if the bovs of New Zealand will recognise that the way in which they can best help their country is by doing like their fathers and forefathers did, by developing the land, then you would hear none of this talk about boys leaving school and being unable to take up their life's work. You would be able to build up a population on the land ten times as big as to-day, and then there would be a chance for the secondary industries. "The country is being terribly arrested in its development by the fact that we cannot encourage immigration. I think that is a misfortune, and I should like in the next few years to see theso restrictions dono away with."