LAND IN DOMINIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22390, 9 April 1936, Page 11

LAND IN DOMINIONS

PLANNED IMMIGRATION NEW ZEALAND ATTITUDE FAIRBRIDGE FARM SCHEME By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright LONDON, April 7 The Dominions Secretary, Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, was questioned in the House of Commons to-day about the statement made by the Primp. Minister of New Zealand, Mr. M. J. Savage, that his Government would be "more than sympathetic to a scheme of planned immigration.

In reply, the Minister said he was awaiting a full report of the matter from the Overseas Settlement Board which was meeting regularly and was examining the situation with a view to laying plans. The Minister said he would submit Mr. Savage's statement to the board. Mr. P. J. H. Hannon (Conservative— Moseley): Is not this a matter for the board to take action immediately? Mr. J. Maxton (Independent Labour —Bridgeton): Will the Minister bear in mind previous efforts in this direction and the disastrous results? Mr. T. Levy (Conservative —Elland): Has the board power to institute plans or simply to consider proposals? Mr. Mac Donald: The board considers proposals on any mntter submitted to it by the Dominions Secretary. Asked later to encourage the establishment of a Fairbridge Farm School in New Zealand, Mr. Mac Donald told Mr J. Duncan (Conservative—North Kensington) that if the New Zealand Government supported the project and if Britain were asked to contribute toward the cost, he would carefully consider the application.

ORIGIN OF SCHOOL benefit to children RESCUED FROM MISERY Plans for the establishment in New Zealand of a Fairbridge farm school, on similar lines to those now in operation in Western Australia and Canada, are being considered by the Child Emigration Society, which aims at assisting English orphans and children of poor parents. A suitable property in the North Island has been offered at advantageous terms. , .' The original Fairbridge farm school was founded in "Western Australia by the late' Mr. Kingsley Fairbridge in 1912. He had a hard struggle to keep alive his experiment during the Great War, but in 1922 he was able to convince the Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments that his scheme not only was a benefit to the children whom he rescued, but was an asset to Australia. As a result, both Governments agreed to make him grants. The secretary of this organisation, Mr. Gordon Green, who visited Auckland on March 16 to confer with the Government on the scheme, stated that through the Fairbridge scheme children were rescued from misery and the dangers of deterioration. They were transferred to the Dominions, reared on a farm in healthy and happy conditions, and were guaranteed a livelihood. The Dominions found in these children the kind of settler best suited to rural life and work. It was a nicely adjusted plan, which, in giving health and happiness and opportunity~to the children, eased, in some part, the social problem in England, and at the same time made an important cfintribution to settlement within the Empire. The Fairbridge scheme had been expanding since 1922, and in the last ten years the normal success had been 98i per cent, continued Mr. Green. There were 400 children at the original school, and 700 or 800 in employment. Not one old pupil was unemployed or had been for a very long time.

LORD BLEDISLOE'S VIEW FAVOURED BY NATURE SHOULD WELCOME SETTLERS LONDON. April 7 The former Governor-General of New Zealand, Viscount Bledisloe, in an address to the Chartered Surveyors' Institution, snid New Zealand farmers, thanks to their higher average education, were more alert-minded than .the British, and were more prepared to test the teachings of modern science. New Zealand pastures would put English pastures to shame. New Zealand was so exceptionally favoured by nature that she could support 10,000,000 people.

It was a problem of first-rate Imperial importance that New Zealand should welcome an . increasing number of British settlers. Certain nations were looking enviously at the under-populated Empire.