IMMIGRANTS FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3404, 11 June 1919, Page 6

IMMIGRANTS FOR NEW ZEALAND.

j A DESIRABLE CLASS I (Fkojj Oub Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, June 3. Among the passengers vvho arrived by the Niagara was Dr W. A. Chappie, who represented Tuapeka in 1908 (and who went Home some years ago and was elected member for Stirlingshire in 1910). Dr Chappie, in an interview, had much of interest to tell regarding conditions at Home. New Zealand, he said, never ranked so high in the estimation of the people at Home as she did at present. Not only had the status of New Zealand been raised, but it had turned the eyes of prospective emigrants towards this country. People who had never before considered emigration—people of capital and position in the Old Country, who but for the war would never have dreamt of emigration—now freely said that the conditions at Home would be such as to make it impossible for them to live under their old conditions. In the first place small capitalists were nervous because of labour troubles, and were not looking in the Old Country for openings for their enterprise. In the second place, as income tax payers they had, under the free-trade system, paid the largest share of the expenses of the war and were bearing the chief burden of taxation. Now they were to emigration to relieve them of these disadvantages. People with small capital, but sufficient for their needs before the war, found now, owing to the depreciation of the sovereign, the demands* of the tax-gatherer, and probable further taxation, that it was essential for them to invest or use their capital in such a way as to get a higher return than it earned before. This desire for new fields, in view of the present status of New Zealand, would bring large and almost immediate immigration to our shores. Under pre-war conditions the typical immigrant from Britain was the working man who was looking for better conditions; but under post-war conditions the typical immigrant would be the capitalist looking for a safer investment and a higher return. The working "classes of Britain as a rule had had high wages during the war. One family the speaker knew of was receiving as much as £29 per week in wages. This was earned by a father and two sons in a coal mine and two daughters working in munition factories. One of these, a girl of 22, who earned 10s per week as a domestic servant before the war, earned £4 per week making shells. These high wages had largely the working classes, and if they could retain them, with ample employment, it was likelv that the proportions of investors and workers would be inverted—that was to say, the proportion of people having capital to invest would be a bigger proportion than before in relation to the workers. These were the people who were beginning to turn their eyes toward this

country, and if there were ships enough to take away the people who wanted to come it would be a serious thing for Britain. Added to this, there was no doubt that the unrest created a tremendous revolution of feeling in Britain among investors and people who were looking for enterprises of various sorts.. On the other hand, justification for the unrest lav in the stubborn refusal of the employers and Government authorities to remedy the most glaring injustices until those making the complaint were y driven to desperation. Dr Chappie also alluded to Ms Asquith and the work he had done during the war. Mr Asquith, the speaker said, was the most unfairly maligned man in Brtiain to-day. No man had ever listened to vilification for so long a period without hitting back as Mr Asquith had done. His silence was due entirely to his refusal to be a- party _to the creation of any disunion in Britain in face of a ruthless foe. The future historian would do justice to the promptness and unerring insight that Mr Asquith had shown during the time he was responsible for the country's affairs.