IMPERIAL MIGRATION

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12357, 29 January 1926, Page 6

IMPERIAL MIGRATION

Migration is a question vital to the existence of the British Empire. This because migration is the proper distributor of the excess of population at the heart over the sparsely-peopled Dominions. It offers a tremendous problem to the best minds of the Empire. Among the thoughtful minds the Prince of Wales has taken his place, and the Dominions who have welcomed hiiri to their • shores and “done him well” are very satisfied to see him there. They have long dubbed him the “Ambassador of Empire." His recent speech in London to Australians and New Zealanders shows how well he merits the title. Dealing with the migration problem, the Prince insisted on two things: (i) The effort to solve it must be incessant; (2) that effort must be co-operative. Both are the conditions of commonsense. To reach success in anything, effort must never cease, and when a problem concerns many people, these people must co-operate. The pull may be long, and it must be strong and a pull all together. The Dominions cannot expect the Mother Country to meet all the expense and find all the,organisation. They must do their part in both, making it a “pull all together.” The matter has, of course, not been neglected. The Imperial Parliament has voted a large sum as the senior partner’s share of the expenses of the Imperial sdlution. Canada has done something similar. Australia has made financial provision to the extent of some thirty-four millions. . New Zealand is absorbing annually 10,000 immigrants from the British Isles. It is generally agreed that .this attention is not sufficient. jMI this can be made clear and straightened' out by co-opera-tive effort. So much the deputation to the Colonial Minister from the Imperial Institute made clear a few days before the .fine appeal made by the Prince of Wales as the result of his wide travelling and close observation. The materials, some of them actually “going,” so to speak, are present for a very complete examination and establishment of a scheme of Imperial migration on co-operative lines. In this connection we may mention the arrangement made by Canada for the transport of duly approved migrants from the Old Country to the eastern seaboard of Canada, at a cost to the migrants two-thirds below the present rate. By that the migrant can reach Canada for something less than five pounds, and after arrival he can fate the crossing of the continent at about the same cost. Arrangements like these can be easily dovetailed into a general co-operative scheme of migration.