THE NEED OF POPULATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23517, 3 June 1938, Page 12

THE NEED OF POPULATION

The conclusion which a committee of the Five Million Club has reached, that a large and increasing body of public opinion is favourable to the encouragement of immigration into the Dominion, may unquestionably be said to be well founded. The fear which was widespread in recent years that the problem of unemployment would be intensified by reversion to a policy of assisted immigration has been virtually dissipated under the influence of the more favourable conditions that are due to the improvement in the prices realised by most of the exported products of the country. It would be rash, however, to assume that the industrial population is satisfied that its standard of living would not be injuriously affected if a policy of immigration were undertaken by the Government. And it is probable that it is only under a Government scheme that persons of a desirable type could be attracted to New Zealand. At any rate, it should only be under a system of Government supervision that inducements should be held out to individuals and families to migrate to this country. There ia one class of migrant that would

be warmly welcomed. The committee of the Five Million Club does not exaggerate when it expresses the opinion that “ 3000 girls and young women could be given immediate employment in households in this country.” The number might probably be doubled without any over-statement of the extent of the employment that is available in domestic service. There is a deplorable shortage of young women capable of performing household duties and willing to accept them. And this shortage has an important bearing upon another question of supreme concern—that of the decline in the birth-rate. To some extent, also, the shortage of farm labour is operating in the same mischievous direction. But it is also to be regarded from another aspect. With an optimism for which it is difficult to discover any reasonable foundation, the Prime Minister assumes that there will be a continued expansion of production in the Dominion. Whatever aids the development of science will bring to the producer, the measure of production must depend in considerable degree on the amount of labour that is available. And it is impossible to hold that the Government is offering inducements to labour to engage itself in farm work when we see, as we have seen this week, that single men who have obstinately refused farm labour during the production season have been placed in receipt of sustenance allowances now that the season is over. It is to be recognised that the conditions of farm labour are not always as attractive as they might be and that a responsibility lies upon the farming community as a whole to ensure that these conditions are improved. Even, however, if they lack nothing in attractiveness, it is not easy to see how the demand for farm labour is to be met through a process of migration, for the question at once arises, whence are the migrants to come? The man who has been born and bred in the cities of the United Kingdom cannot be held to be suitable, and the British Government has recently completed arrangements for increasing the production of home-grown foods—a policy which must necessitate an organisation of man-power for agricultural pursuits at Home. Nor, it is to be conjectured, is it probable that skilled workers in urban industries can, in present circumstances, be included among migrants to the Dominion from Great Britain. The Five Million Club realises the difficulties that are to be encountered. They are of such a nature as to make it important that a survey shall be conducted of the whole field from which migration can be attracted.