MIGRATION POLICY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20706, 2 May 1929, Page 18

MIGRATION POLICY.

SIR JAMES PARR EXPLAINS. A MISCONCEPTION. ( From Our Own Corresponde?? t. ) ■ V LONDON, March 19. As in Glasgow, Sir James Parr thought it expedient -when visiting Hull yesterday to explain why New Zealand was not apparently pulling,its weight in' regard, to. migration. / The truth about migration so far as New, Zealand was concerned, he said, was that , many people , had got the . idea that New Zealand, like Canada and Auer tralia, had large areas of fertile land. That was a misconception. They had, as a matter of fact, no good, land left in New Zealand which was not at the'present time farmed by'their* : owd people. They were, as farming went, closely settled.’ He did not say that they could not subdivide some of the, existing farms successfully, but. that would be of . little use to immigrants. It would mea.n big,' money for land under cultivation. ’ . For the man who wanted to farm new country, New Zealand- was quite. unable to offer anything. The’Government was going into the question of .turning second: and third class land : into , cultivation, and that would . involve a large amount of; capital expenditure,-, and -.the 'land would ho. sold ■ at; anything from- £lO -to £2O per Acre, .which, would-be hardly attractive to-.a.-poor man. , ,;. ■ With, regard to trade. generally, Sir Janies said that' tbeir cities were 1 overcrowded , and in some’ of them'they had’ serious- unemployment.; What would be the good ;of taking casual, men from this country,i unemployed here, to, be unemployed in New Zealand-? Their; Government was turned out only a' few months ago,- and oho of' the. alleged reasons was that, they had, allowed too many immigrants into,'New Zealand to take the bread and butter out of the - mouths of their own people. They would willingly take young fellows who wanted .to learn farming, and they had '30,000 more-men than women, so that they could take all the ,Yorkshire: lasses -they could -send. In time they Vefc hoping that the prosperity of New Zealand would permit of their taking" more, people, but at the pre-’ sent moment it was of; no use his telliim them that New Zealand' oould take -otljbr than the man with capital.