MIGRATION POLICY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21931, 15 October 1934, Page 10

MIGRATION POLICY

The report upon British migration policy by an winter-departmental committee, presided over by Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, who will shortly visit Australia and New Zealand, shows breadth of vision, sound knowledge' of facts and a grasp of realities. The committee is concerned solely with the possibilities of Empire population movements of a future day when economic conditions will encourage success. It rejects the group idea of settlement, which has been put forward by unofficial organisations, one of which elaborated a scheme of settling new territory on a mas 3 scale. Generally speaking it places the greatest faith in the spontaneous movement of people, which cannot possibly begin unless there is work to do and markets for the fruit of the labour. In New Zealand, and probably in Australia, migration is regarded mainly from the point of view of land settlement. But even in this country, where primary production is predominant, migration of the post-war period did not vastly expand the farming industry. No statistics on the subject are available, but it is a matter of common knowledge that under the nomination system more people arrived with the intention of following urban pursuits than to take up land. Encouragement could be given when assisted migration is resumed to those trained to rural occupations, but it is impossible under any system of selection to compel any migrant to devote himself to any calling. It is one of the characteristics of British people, a characteristic which no amount of planning will eradicate, to exercise individual choice, so far as it is possible, as to how a livelihood is to be won. The great aim should he to select a type who are adaptable and who possess initiative and the independent spirit. The report should have particular value at the present moment, when the freedom of markets is menaced by quota restrictions. The right line of approach, as the committee observes, is to help to create in the Dominion the conditions which provoked the spontaneous flow of migration iin the past. This fact ought to be kept in the foreground when every import control plan is being considered. If there is to be permanent agricultural planning in Britain it will be imperative for that planning to be intelligently extended to embrace Empire production. Neither Australia nor New Zealand can dream of opening their doors to migrants of any industrial class unless there is enlarging scope for the sale of the commodities of the soil, for the production of | which they are especially suited. i