UNEMPLOYMENT AND IMMIGRATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18543, 2 May 1922, Page 4

UNEMPLOYMENT AND IMMIGRATION.

There is nothing paradoxical in the circumstance that while unemployment is actively stimulating emigration from the Old Country its existence in this dominion is used as an argument against immigration. The deputation which interviewed the Prime Minister at Wellington so used it, and not without a considerable show of reason. There are, of course, those who denounce immigration in season and out, harping in their short-sightedness upon the idea that in a country where the population is small work is likely to be abundant for everybody.. These people ignore the factor of industrial expansion as well as that of national in respect to which a fairs” policy means stagnation. As a factor; however, in the promotion of the prosperity and progress of Zealand immigration is a matter of deep interest to the country. This dominion needs population if it is to realise a destiny that will he wholly worthy of it. The oversea dominions are not blind to their own requirements or to prospective advantage to themselves in their recognition of the importance of the policy of Empire migration which is protapting the steps that are now being taken by the Imperial Government to further a comprehensive scheme of Empire settlement. A powerful impetus is given, to this movement, in connection vfith which the British Government is prepared to spend many millions, by the necessity of ameliorating the present Situation in the Old Country, where unemployment relief is being widely administered through a demoralising and costly system of doles. That scheme of Imperial migration is not yet fairly launched, and it is not to be suggested that the introduction of large numbers of immigrants into New Zealand at the present juncture is desirable in view of the problem of unemployment with which we are ourselves confronted and in view, also, of the possibility that during the winter this problem may grow more acute. Apparently, the Government recognises the hard facts of the immediate situation, and contemplates a suspension of activity in immigration, for Mr Massey has stated that there will be no more large batches of new arrivals before Hie spring. When industry becomes restarted in earnest in the dominion, as wiirbe the case when wage readjust ments have been effected, the country should be quite able to absorb readily a very considerable volume of immigration.