THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1923. EMPIRE SETTLEMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18757, 10 January 1923, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1923. EMPIRE SETTLEMENT.

The scheme of Empire Settlement formulated, as a cabled message states, by influential bodies in the West of England, evidently differs somewhat froni the generality of schemes, either in operation or proposed, to encourage migration within the Empire and so relieve unemployment in the Old Country. Its special feature would appear to consist in provision for group emigration, with a view to the development of specific areas in the dominions, the funds being provided by private investors—not without some guarantee as to returns—and the creation of an enterprise likely to attract capital being a purpose definitely entertained. There is no occasion to discuss the practicability of . such proposals at this stage of their enunciation. They will doubtless be submitted to the Government for consideration. The Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr Onnsby-Gore, has already announced his intention of doing his utmost to accelerate the progress of the Empire settlement schemes. Empire migration is not going to provide any immediate cure for nil the unemployment in Great ■Britain. In a recent address to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Mr Amery, First Lord of the Admiralty, pointed to the “ fatal mistake ” of thinking it could prove so wholesale a panacea. But this reservation did not affect the weight of his advocacy of emigration from Great Britain to regions where natural resources exist which bryig about a quicker creation of wealth. Those who are concerning themselves deeply with the question of alleviating unemployment in the Old Country look to the Empire at large to contribute to the solution of the problem, and the dominions, having regard to their selfrespect and to their separate and jqint interests, cannot affect to be indifferent to the situation. If the Empire is to be worthy of its name as an Empire, each part of it must be prepared to contribute to the improvement of the conditions of life among the citizens of the Empire. Nothing in the shape of sacrifice or even of self-denial is called for. At the present time Great Britain pn> vides the melancholy spectacle of an army of men, and women too, lacking employment. Presumably they are unemployed, coming to the root of the matter, because there is not yifficieht purchasing power available at present to absorb the full product of British industry. The dominions can help by receiv ing as large a body of British immigrants as they can advantageously absorb. To quote from a lecture by Mr Harold Cox : “If the dominions could absorb a few millions of Britishers it would add immensely to the happiness of the human race, but the dominions did not want and would not have Britain’s excess urban population.” As the requirements of the dominions differ, so may there be room for difference in details of their respective attitudes towards immigration. Naturally they desire that their populations shall be recruited from the most suitable material. There seems no profit in the consideration of any comprehensive scheme for the migration of tradesmen and skilled workers from the Old Country to be engaged in secondary industries far removed from the world’s great centres of demand. The dominions are still at the stage of development at which their primary industries await expansion. They can as a whole find room for agricultural workers in large numbers, and for women fitted for domestic service. This is the case with New Zealand, and relatively of course Australia, and Canada in particular, have a far greater capacity for absorbing Britain’s unemployed. Great areas of prairie lands have yet to be brought under cultivation in Canada, and the Canadian Government is giving evidence of an increased desire to attract tenant farmers in large numbers to the country. Undoubtedly Canada has room for a great body of immigrants, and requires their

labour. As settlement of the land extends in Australia and New Zealand these countries will also be able to take a fair proportion of men who are agricultural workers and suitable for farm pursuits, and in all the dominions is exhibited the demand for domestic servants which has so long been in evidence in this country. New Zealand has experienced, like other countries, comparatively bad during which the unwisdom of encouraging a large influx of immigrants has been manifest. But the position has undergone improvement, and prices of important commodities are finding a level .that will be reflected, there is every reason to believe, in a restoration of very satisfactory and promising conditions. With prosperity returning, New Zealand should be able to absorb her proportion of immigrants, and should he glad of the opportunity of doing so. There are in the Old Country many thousands of persons whose outlook is gloomy in the extreme. To such renewed hope would be born of the prospect of emigration to parts of the Empire where the conditions are better and congestion of population is unknown. It ig by a national policy giving recognition to these facts that the dominions can help in this matter. In New Zealand, as in Australia, Labour has shown a disposition to scrutinise immigration schemes very jealously. But the industrial class must cease to regard tho position from a selfish aspect. The greater the population the greater will he the demand for all the products of industry, and there is no reasonable warrant whatever for the suggestion that immigration upon a fairly large scale would render the conditions less favourable for the working people of a prosperous dominion.