DESIRED LAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23191, 10 November 1938, Page 8

DESIRED LAND

NEW ZEALAND'S APPEAL WOULD-BE EMI GRANTS INQUIRIES IN LONDON . .... , • ■ 'il'ifp BRITONS AND FOREIGNERS '< $ ———— [PKOM OUB OWN COBBESPONDENI] ' !i LONDON, Oct. 20 %% I "We want to go to New Zealand. Will you tell us something about the I country, how we can get there, and can we expect assistance with our fares?" Officials at the Dominion High Commissioner's Office in the Strand are inundated with questions of this nature every day. By letter, by telephone and by personal inquiry, more than 100' people a day are making tliem. Somo are British, others are foreigners, including Austrian refugees, Germans and Czechoslovakians. A steady stream of inquiries began early in the year. They were mostly from English people. After Herr Hitler ftj marched into Austria, however, foreign applications became by far the greater. In the last fortnight the number of daily inquiries has soared higher than at any other time. Most of them are now from British people. Fear of war; is only one motive. Others include lack of opportunity at home, or desire to begin life afresh in another land. Some of the younger people are influenced more by romantic ideas of travel. With others it is a case of "green '-[7 fields and pastures new." Those who inquire are of all ages, | many classes and many professions. Some have money; others have little or none. Some are well educated; a few are almost illiterate. Of the British -k : . people, it is estimated that not more than 10 per cent follow up their questions with any thoroughness and eventually make a decision to go to New Zealand. For the majority, the fares for themselves and their relatives aro too great a hurdle, and it is Srobable that they turn to the High ommissioner's Offices of Dominions and colonies nearer home. Of the foreign applicants, it is doubt, fill whether 5 per cent embark for New Zealand. They are told to apply direct to the Minister of Customs ia Wellington, and that it is for him to 1 decide whether they shall be allowed to enter the country. The majority of the foreigners desiring to emigrate are of the professional classes. While many, of them hope to settle in New Zealand, others wish to secure a temporary permit allowing them to spend six months in the Dominion while they await permission to enter the Uniteci States. - •. V ; ' ;

For a of tho British people* a great attraction of tb? Dominion appears to be the legislation recently introduced by the Labour Government. High wages and pepsions are a bait for a number of the inquiries, and in some cases the question bais been asked as to whether a pension could be drawn immediately on arrival. One of the more naive applicants desired to know whether the New Zealand pension could be drawn on arrival and the British pension resumed on return to England.-