EMPIRE SETTLEMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20191, 31 August 1927, Page 14

EMPIRE SETTLEMENT.

UNEQUAL BURDENS AND LACK OF CONSTRUCTIVE SETTLEMENT.

Fkoii a Correspondent. It is five years since the Empire Settlement Act, 1922, was passed by tiro Imperial Parliament. The. Act was specially designed to make better provision for further British settlement in his Majesty’s overseas dominions, a n event from which much in the way of Empire settlement and reduced unemployment in the Homeland was expected. The dominions of Canada, Australia and New Zealand in a new genesis of nationhood and flushed with a sense of partnership in the affairs of Empire exhibited a natural desire to bear full share of responsibility under the Act. In the preliminary discussions that resulted in the Act nothing would please them better than recognition of their status as equal partners with the Homeland in the financial sacrifice involved. In the high tide of agreement no impious doubts were allowed to mar equal ambitions backed by sincere intentions. Perhaps it was natural that in this romantic atmosphere real flaws in the Act remained unobserved. A sense of disillusionment is now abroad. The mantle of romance has fallen; but it cannot bo likened unto a falling asunder of good intentions; rather it is a recognition of the impossibility of fulfilling -deals which the Act embodies. Perhaps in no other provision of the Act is disillusion; ment more plain than m the mty-hity principle concerning finance. Ibe very name “ fifty-fifty popularly applied _to that provision which says the contribution of the Secretary of State (of the Home Government) shall not in any case exceed half the expenses.” is. a .misnomer, when the means and the circumstances of the contracting parties are proportionately taken into account. A TRUE “FIFTY-FIFTY” BASIS. The population of the Homeland is apnroximatoly six times that of Canada; eight times that of Australia; and 32 timcs that of Now Zealand. A fifty fifty manciple to bo equable on a population basis would provide for tho Homolanc -iay- ; nr , on agreed schemes 85 pel cent, oi Canadian, 89 per cent. of 97>per cent, of New Zealand expenditures Can the overseas dominions afford ball of tho expenses likely to be incurred under the Act? Of course 5 not. Willingness or, So ia tho “p d ulati^ 6 tran“planted within mediately become producers of foodand raw materials and purchasers of tionicinno manufactures. LETHARGIC THOUGHT. Empire statesmen have singularly failed & pf&gSizß' ; »d gxsr«r;«4! George Lansbury present to rou b i°Eolr Hardie? throstle of dmno d.* No y one nd bog™dg“ on Jhem- a good time, but what about the Mayor of Islington? THE FALSITY OF SALUTARY SLOGANS. was approximately 340 000 l action per head in Great Britain « £ls 14 . nws apart from past heavy sacrifices in HUngton” neither is there a surfeit of banauets by ancient and worshipful c. m panics ■ yet it would bo quite as logical From the 5 proportional standpoint of stake in the Empire. Islington is part of the Empire and is also interested if indirect y, in solving the problem of Empire .settlement as well ns other problems Is the ™to of the man in the overseas dominions worth more than that of tho man m Ishngton? WHERE ARE THE MEN OF CAPACITY? Is it the flattery of after-dinner orator - v / or disregard of proportional values that has prevented constructive thou £ ht J m V ,u' tors returning to the Homeland from the dominions who have mot and conversed with responsible -people overseas, report the difficulty experienced 'bP finance needed to take advantage of the Act They speak also (with bated breatln it is true), of a lack of imagination, and of men with capacity to handle the big propositions necessary to adequate preparation for reception and sympathetic guidance of new arrivals in the early days of settlement. Men of capacity must be found, and surely they are to be found within the Empire. One thing is certain, a different basis of finance is absolutely’ neeessary. Who dare say that £3,000,000 annually permitted to bo expended under the Act, is adequate? It is totally inadequate The Homeland can easily afford 100 per cent, of the cost of training, migration, and settlement for many times £3 000 000. Moreover, a bigger basis ot expenditure, that is commensurate with the need would be cheaper and more productive oi good, than our present unproductive expenditure of unemployment. FESTERS PROPAGATED. What are Statesmen doing to allow the present conditions to exist? Iho Empire is daily warned of the “Reds ’ within its midst; it is begged, cajoled, and bantered to believe that there is a dire menace to society as at present constituted. Perhaps it is not fair to say statesmen are entirely devoid of imagination; they certamlv do their best to make our flesh creep; and presumably we ought to be grateful for their warnings. But what do they do to counteract the menace of which wo hear so much? Singularly enough they ahow more "Reds” to bo manufactured. Unhealthy housing conditions in the Homeland are allowed to persist in sapping the morale of worthy people who could be placed in healthier circumstances in the dominions. Over-crowding is permitted to breed unsavoury spectres which could not exist in the sparsely inhabited open spaces of the Empire. Tho youth of the Homeland fresh from school, in the springtime of ambition, instead of‘being encouraged to cultivate and exercise the spirit of enterprise, is nurtured in idleness. Men and women willy-nilly, are forced to subsist at the destitution level, on a pittance that barely keeps body and soul together, when they might easily be prosperous citizens of the Empire. A monstrous unproduc live expenditure of unemployment is perpetuated. Thus demoralisation, misery, and worse are propagated.