IMPERIAL MIGRATION

Otago Witness, Issue 3331, 16 January 1918, Page 37

IMPERIAL MIGRATION

EMPLOYMENT OF WOUNDED AND DISCHARGED SOLDIERS.

Mr T. E. Sedgwick, author of tho scheme under which "Sedgwick boye" emigrated from Great Britain to New Zealand and elsewhere, has addressed a long and suggestive letter to the Prime Minister of the dominion on the subject of Imperial migration. He has forwarded us a copy of the letter, which is in the following terms:

I have been thinking lately over tho problems of migration to New Zealand after the war, and I venture to subjoin a few facts and. figures, some of which, I think, 1 may prove of interest to you. NEW ZEALAND'S NEED.

The unpeopled, and therefore undefended,, state of the dominion expoees her to attack and incites uninvited coloured immigration, which she could not at present resist, either by sea or land. If tho whole population of 1,000,000 were to be placed round the 2500 miles of the dominion's coastline, there would still be over four yards for each to defend. A Japanese officer told a British officer that a country could not expect to hold vacant territory by waving a flag over it. A population of less than one million persons on 103,581 square miles shows less than 10 persons per square mile, or, allowing for half of these being in the towns, less than five per square mile in the rural districts. THE WAR, POPULATION, AND MIGRATION. Tho King is the centrifugal force which keeps the parts together, and any democratic or Labour upheaval may lead to Great Britain following 'the example of Portugal, Russia, and China, as Labour ie not sufficiently educated to look into the future and see that its best prospects are derivable from keeping tho Empire together, wi'th the King at its head. Pressure of population leading to unemployment or low wages is the great menace after the war, an*i the presence of so many boys and females on the labour market here already makes it difficult for partially disabled men to obtain suitable-work at proper rates of pay. After the war we shall have a bigger population, both working and actual, in Great Britain than if there had been no war. We calculate to have lost 250,000 men by death, which may increase to 500,000 before peace is deolarecf. This has boon made good in the Old Country several times over in noimbers of population and in the supply and demand on the labour market. As against our losses in the war we have to set: — 600,000 persons (estimated, as official returns are no longer published) saved bo thiß country at the expense of New Zealand and other dominions by checks on Imperial migration since August, 1914, oomparod with the same period previous thereto. 330,000 Belgians settled hare. Some will go back; sorno will stay. 20,000 Chinese, Japanese, West Indians, Americans, and others now taking the Jobs of those fighting. 900,000 actual increase of civil population as an ' offset to a possible loss of 500,000 men; end from a labour standpoint we must also add: ' 300,000 less persons in receipt of " poor law " relief here. 5,000 lees prison .population, now effective fighters or workers. 500,000 additional female workers— now mostly in munition factories and other formerly, masculine occupations. 1,705,000 Thus it will be seen that our utmost possible numerical losses of population at home have fallen, in addition to the loss of their own men, on New Zealand and other dominions, whilst we at home_ will have replaced the civil population in other ways many times over, and all tho above figures are under-stated. , Our net increase in population at home was one million every three _ years, even after allowing for the net migration outwards of 250,000 per annum The boom in marriages, infant life-saving crusades, have kept up our survival rates even after allowing for reduced births. A further 500,000 men's work is represented by the £100,000,000 worth of new munition machinery applicable to other forms of industry, which alone would maintain our manufacturing and producing outputs at their former levels, even if half a million men are sacrificed. The need for keeping a large # working population at home after the war is further reduced by the great retrenchment in expenditure among the wage-earners owm w to high prices and high texatioa after postponed work has been completed—i.e., probably about a year after peace has been signed. . , , Manv people have learn much as to what they can do without without reducing their own comfort. This largely applies to both indoor and outdoor servants in private service A large number of those who formerly spent their lives in the pursuit of pleasure have now experienced the sweets of employment, and will wish to continue occupied This will further complicate the question of employment at home.. * Migration encourages men to marry earlier overseas than they could at home, as the prospects of being ..able to adequately support a family are better there than here The survival \rates overseas are also higher than at home. At the same time, bv developing the home export trade simultaneously with reduced competition on the home labour market, it has the same effect, although indirectly, at homo. Politicians may count population by mere numbers Economists require them to bo employed at their highest productive output and maximum physical efficiency. Although the volume of employment has been less during the war, overcrowding, poverty, low wages, and unemployment have been reduced bv the temporary emigration of five million 'workers to tho trenches m the several battle zones. THE EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION. New Zealand half a century ago was receiving men money, munitions, and food from the Motherland, then also engaged in a European war. Her potential fertility, being virgin, was even greater then than now. The whole case has been reversed simply by tho migration to New Zealand of. some of the surplus population of Great Britain, which still retained enough to constitute a dependent poverty-population of 1,000,000 persons in the twentieth century, or equivalent to tho wholo population of tho dominion, which includes an area of practically equal extent, whilst one-third of the 46 million inhabitants of tho United Kingdom were living below tho povertyline. Yet only 40 million acres of New

Zealand's lands are yet occupied in any form, and yet her total net exports are worth £25,985,000, mostly rural produce. By relieving congestion at home, migration improves the prospects of marriage in the Old Countrv, and encourages the preservation of infant life there, where 12 babies now die to every nine soldiers killed at the front. The child mortality pec thousand in New Zealand is less than half what it is at home, and thus migration also doubles the Imperial expectancy of life for the offspring of the immigrants. We must consider this in remembering how Great Britain has lost more babies than men since August, 1914. Productively the value of exports per head of population in New Zealand is £23 16s, as against £9 5a for the United Kingdom.

Whilst tho worst thing that can happen to a country is to have a superabundant supply of labour offering at any time and at an/ place, at the same time to have to Bend orders out of the country for want of labour spells distinct loss to that country on account of the loss to other workers of the spending capacity of those required to execute the said works. For example, two hundred workers on tho land require the services of one hundred to provide them with homes, clothing, education, and so forth. These* hundred: in their turn require fifty to satisfy their needs, and so on until it is found that the placing of two hundred where they are wanted is 1 equivalent to plaoing four hundred, and these numbers are multiplied by the dependents of the workers. If the orders are sent out of the country tho whole benefit is lost.

When we consider how the 38,608 population of New Zealand in XB6B has increased to 1,000,000 by the aid of an immigration of a few thousand persons, we can realise how vastly the present position of tho dominion would have improved had the immigration been doubled. Had there been no migration to NewZealand and the other dominions, the people of Great Britain would have .been still more overcrowded than they are, and our race would have deteriorated. Some other nation would have claimed the then still empty land, and possibly the task of developing such a vast and splendid heritage might have occupied their attention instead of their embarking on the present war. The "post bellum" migration promises to be on a scale of unprecedented magnitude, but its direction into Imperial channels requires preparation, watching, and care, or it will bo diverted to emigration to the United States or elsewhere under foreign flags, to the loss to the Empire in food supplies, defence, and wealth, 'all of which depend on effective man-power. Tho year after 250,000 men returned from the South African war, 217,000 persons left Great Britain for the United. States, where their consumption of British manufactures was about 5s per head per annum as against £l2 per head of population in New Zealand. The wealth they and their posterity lave produced and will produce is lost to the Empire, but won by our great ally, America.

If New Zealand is now worth £1,000,000,000 capital value, imagination boggles either at what she shoula be worth with more population a century hence, or at what she might have been worth by now had more migration been directed to her shores. The conquest of New_ Zealand alone would have almost indemnified the Germans financially for their War costs, and as the country develops it will be a richer prize to other nations who are becoming Overcrowded at home. When we consider how Germany's natural increase before the war was at the rate of 900,000 a year, whilst her admitted losses in men have not been more than one-third as high, despite a reduced birthrate, her numerical fiopulation must have risen since 1914, and n another 15 or 20 years she will have more than made good her total losses in man-power during the war. The populations of all European and some Asiatic countries are becoming far too great for their areas. The British Empire and parts of Africa comprise nearly the whole of the unsettled parts of the world, but notwithstanding this, the British Government have done nothing to people them for the last 60 years except talk, appoint commissions and committees, and help their unemployed and pauper population to migrate. FOOD SUPPLY AND MIGRATION. The entrance of the enemy countries as purchasers into the food markets of the world after the war will further increase the cost of food, as even if the Empire continues to send all its produce home, Argentina and other countries will sell in the highest markets, so that the present migration of lads will also help to keep the British people's food at reasonable rates by the eternal law of supply and demand. At present the total exports of the Empire overseas do not equal the total net British imports of foodstuffs and raw materials. Wo are yet far from being a self-sufficing and self-sustaining Empire, but we could so beoome by a better distribution of tho Empire's population. Surely tho British Empire is one in Labour just as much as in Defence!

The war has greatly raised the standard of living- at Home. Two million soldiers now enjoy their first greatcoats, and more still enjoy their boots being well soled. Many have enjoyed meat three times a day instead of sometimes only once a week, and regular wages and allowances have also raised the standard of living for their dependents at home. They will wish to continue thus, and the demand for food, wool, and leather will increase. The world's human population is, however, overtaking its bovine, ovine, find porcine population, and unless more people are plaoed, on the land both at home and overseas, the present scarcity and consequent high prices will appear in retrospect to have been a plethora in comparison in 1040. We must not forget the claims of our Allies to a share of our Empire's products, especially now that wo have whetted their appetites for otir overseas meat, grain, sugar, wool, leather, and other exports. FEMALE MIGRATION. The experiment of placing young, respectable widows as domestic assistants on Farms in New South Wales has proved that—(l) their condition is vastly improved to what it was hero; (2) that, none of the same troublo exists <&3 to inspection and supervision in the back-blocks which retards the immigration of girlc or young women to such parts; (3) that they settle down well, and like the life: (4) that they pfton marry overseas; (5) that their interest in their children (ono or more each) prevents their rlriftinsr from situation to situation or wanting to be out too much at night; and (6) that the farmers' wives prefer to have a woman to bo with them as a friend. They can leave her in charge of the house

and family if they go for a short holiday, and she is more efficient in cases of childbirth or other illness.

Orphanages arc needed in Now Zealand for the older ohildren of school ago of war widows who decide to migrate, and at the same time mere is a great need throughout the dominion for an extended system of immigration of girls to help the wives of the artisans, but this needs the erection of machinery for selecting the mistresses, supervision, and, if possible, apprenticeship, with compulsory banking of wages. This would be further improved if there were several training homes for immigrant girls, ■where they could recover from the voyage, learn a little of the duties required of them, and which they could get to regard as their " home" in cases of illness, change, or holidays. The selection of British brides by Npw Zealand soldiers is, however, more than neutralised at Home by the deaths of the real and potential husbands at the front, so our surplus females at Home after the war will be one and a-half millions, which will be almost exactly the number of our widows.

Widows and lasses of the working classes are far more domesticated than arc 'those who have worked for wages in domestio service, which is ihe general criterion of the New Zealand Government beforo reduced passage rates are Even if 10,000. Now Zealanders are killed in the war—which God forbid!—the excess of males over females in New Zealand will still be 36,734, less any reduotion made by the New Zealand troops taking brides from the beautiful females of this and allied countries, all of which had before the war excess femininity of population ranging from 6.08 per cent in Portugal to 0.49 per cent, in Russian Poland against a New Zealand excess masculinity of 3.8 per cent, in 1914. The British Government has promised female workers on the land at Home special facilities to migrate after the war, and this offer undoubtedly decided many to volunteer for rural work. These also, if they stay here, are a serious menace to the employment of the wounded men, but if they migrate they become potential wives- of New Zealanders who otherwise are condemned to oelibaey. The net loss to the Empire of thu9 keeping over 3 per cent. of Its population sexually separated spells a loss which in a century would exceed our expenses in this war. JUNIOR MIGRATION.

Views on the subject of juvenile or child migration except war orphans for adoption, may vary in different places. Everyone who has studied or worked at ImErial migration is agreed, however, that nior migration is the best for the folding reasons:—Boys (or girls) between 15 and 19 are most adaptable, root well anywhere they are placed; learn save, .settle, and then marry. They get relatives out to them by nomination or otherwise. Their letters and success are the best advertising material for the country, as they are read, studied, and believed. The countries of their adoption obtain a longer life for the same fare, and all are effective workera from the day they arrive, and a few years later they become parents of the next generation. A man and wife never really root well j thev find it difficult to assimilate new methods," ideas, or conditions, and / their effective period of living is shorter. They also cannot afford to help out many of their old comoanions, and their letters are shorter, less descriptive, and less enthusiastic They are also more likely to become old-age pensioners than if they had migrated younger If they have children these, too, will bo a charge on the country for education, just as they are a charge on their parents for their keep. The experiences of the New Zealand Government, imitated by others, have been that of the 5000 lads migrated to rural work from Great Britain (mostly town lads) during the five years before the war, practically no failures have occurred when they stayed on the land, although many oases of distress have arisen when the lads dritted up to the town before they had become acclimatised and accustomed to rural surroundings. This emphasises, for 'the sake both of the lads themselves and of Labour intorests, the desirability of apprenticeship for a limited period, as the lads are thereby bound to remain on the land till they have given it a fair trial (and then not one in 100 would return to town life}, and with the contingent banking of wages they are taught thrift and enabled to lay the foundations for their own starts as farmers. If this is carried out under- Government, it has everything to recommend it, and it specially protects the interests of Labour, who need producers to keep food prices down and sustain the country's exports and consumers for their own manufactures or other output who do not compote on their own labour markets. I refrain from expanding on the selection of the lads supervision on the voyage, fitting the lads to the jobs they prefer and are best fitted for, and the after-care; but I would emphasise the fact that repayments are exactly in the same ratio to the amount of care which is boBtowed on the boys during the first year or so after their arrival overseas, and any expense is therefore saved many times over by tho improved returns. I would, however, press the following considerations on your attention: The employment of the partially disabled or wounded soldiers at home depends on a proportion of the boys now in blind-alley occupations, such as munition factory hands, messengers, packers, lift boys, being withdrawn into more productive channels of employment, and they will not take jobs which should be reserved for ex-soldiers, whether Imperial or British. The boys fulfil one class of work and the men another, and both are complementary and necessary to each other. One munition factory will discharge probably about 8000 boys after the war, D and there are 2500 other controlled establishments. We have 9400 telegraph boys, and before the war wo had 50,000 golf coddles. What are our wounded men to do in face of such competition—augmented by female labour—if ihe Britain of the South does not come to the aid of the Britain of the North (and at the same time help herself to her one need, population), and reduce the pressuro on our labour market bv migration? 'lf migrated, lads would not take any of the positions overseas that are regarded as tho light of the returning men, but they would carry on the rural development, and the (raining and placing of them would afford invaluable experience in the later placing of other older ''boys" when tho armies are disbanded. The flame machinery and staff would be applicable. The cooperation of settlers and farmera in absorbing tho returned soldiers could be also invited, tither for a period or by the creation of training centres as war memorials to

some of those who have died for tho two Britains.

Tho number of partially disabled men seeking work in England is already large, and is daily increasing. Is it to continue?

DEFENCE AND IMMIGRATION.

Every war begins where the last war left off as far as the application of soienoe is concerned. If Australia is ever attacked the experience of the present war will be to her conquest. High explosives, hydroplanes, aeroplanes, submarines, poison gas, and any fresh horror which man's ingenuity can invent in the interim will bo got ready, just as gunpowder and round shot were prepared in days gone by. The horribleness of war will make for its curtailment, and if New Zealand and Australia be attacked the Mother Country could not send off contingents to arrive before the war would have to be over. Moreover, the Eeqple at home would not bo prepared to ght to prevent foreigners settling in unoeoupied portions of the Bmpire l especially when tho same people aro admitted freely to tjie already overcrowded Old Country, particularly as she has the opportunity now \o get the possible defenders who will produce the wealth necessary to pay for her defences. Tho boys have already proved themselves good soldiers, keen in the defence of the country of their adoption, and 'if all tho losses in the dominion's armies are mado good' by drafts from. Lord Kitchener's armies, it will form the best and most splendid memorial to him and to the herolo dead of the dominion, and' in a measure both avenge their deaths and advance the defence of New Zealand for which they wrought so much and for which they died. Moreover, New Zealand's one million and Australia's fiv© million people could not afford to pay for a war, as British troops j would need New Zealand rates of pay. A British " Tommy " now costs £2OO a year. To migrate a ''trained soldier settler would not cost £2O, and his labours would enrich the commonwealth by £IOO a year. The future of New Zealand liea, therefore, in migration and conquest. If New Zealand desires population she should prepare now to aot for herself. Migration being an economio factor, ft finds its own level, and as soon as wages rise and pauperism, unemployment, and overcrowding are reduced at home _ thereby the tendency to migrate will decline. Now is the time, as a year hence it will be too late. What will New Zealand do?