THE MIGRANT'S LOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20420, 23 November 1929, Page 16

THE MIGRANT'S LOT.

DEAN INGE'S COMPLAINT.

LETTER FROM NEW ZEALAND.

REPLY TO ASSERTIONS.

[from our own correspondent.] LONDON, Oct. 18. In the course of an article in the Evening Standard, Dean Ingo made reference to "Lifo in Dominions." His subject was "Tho Bitter Cry of tho Middle Classes." Mr. A. A. Ponsonby, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for tho Dominions, and chairman of the Overseas Settlement Committee, mado a protest next day. Tho following is a passage from tho dean's article: —"Wo have to face the fact that a wholq class of young Englishmen, who aro decidedly above tho average, both physically and intellectually, aro being ruthlessly squeezed out of existence. They may emigrate? Yes, many of them do, and some of them make good. But farming is very unlucrative all over tho world; in most of tho Dominions a man should have considerable capital, both to begin and to tide over bad years. And whero is the capital to como from ? His father is ground down to tho bone with taxation, and can hardly make both ends meet. Nor is the young Englishman always welcomed or fairly treated in the Dominions. When I raised this question last year I received scores of bitter letters from emigrants to Australia, and I havo just read a piteous complaint from New Zealand. Mr. Ponsonby, in his capacity as chairman of the Overseas Settlement Committee, felt he could not allow the dean's statement about life in the Dominions to pass without protest. "The recruiting, training, advising and assisting of settlers is in any event a matter of some delicacy and complexity, he says. "But our task is rendered still more difficult when a prominent ecclesiastic publicly makes the charge that young Englishmen are not 'always welcomed or fairly treated in the Dominions,' and goes on to talk of scores of 'bitte,r letters.'

"This general charge, founded on the receipt of a few letters, is most unfair. The percentage of failures in all classes of settlors is relatively small, and I caii say from experience that they are far more often duo to the temperamental unsuitahility of the settler for the life he has chosen than to any negligence or want of sympathy on the part of the Dominion authorities. But the failures are apt to get a degree of publicity for their grievances which gives a false impression, while the vast majority settle down to their new life without the success of their enterprise being published. "In contrast to Dean Inge's letters of complaint, I have in my department not scores, but hundreds, of letters from boys in all parts of the Empire, and of all standards of education, paying a tribute to the warm welcome they hayo received, and the attention which is pa.d to their welfare. "For the class of boy of whom Dean Inge writes there are a number of special schemes in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They provide for the training of the boys, both with individual farmers and in agricultural schools and colleges. It is a mistake to suppose that farming is the only opening overseas for boys of public and secondary school education. There openings in commerce, in the professions and in certain public services. "If the dean, with his great influence, wishes to help the boys about whom ho is concerned, I would suggest . that he should Ret into closer touch with the actual facts of oversea settlement, and should advise boys who are disposed to seek a career overseas to get into touch with this department, where all possiblo advice and assistance will be given them."