PEOPLING THE DOMINION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19247, 12 February 1937, Page 11

PEOPLING THE DOMINION

AN ENGLISH VIEWPOINT SCOPE POT! INDUSTRIES PROBLEMS OF DEFENCE In mi article in the London Daily Telegraph. Mr. O. F- J- Dart comments oil New Zealand's attitude to migration in the following terms: Interest has been revived in the question of emigration to the Dominions by the .speech of the Speaker of the -New Zealand House of Representatives. Mr Barnard spoke of the danger to New Zealand of the decline in the birthrate. . , . i Emigration is generally admitted to be a question of great importance to the Umpire; it may have to receive practical consideration at no very distant date. My purpose is to point out, some oi the prejudices and false impressions that have existed on both sides, and to otter a possible solution of admitted difficulties. 1 have discovered that the idea is still largely held in England that NewZealand is" a miraculously fertile country, where fortunes can he made in a few-years. These ideas always die hard. It was the same misconception that came near to wrecking Wakefield's early colonisation .schemes, and its ill-effects are still apparent in inflated land values. LIMITED FERTILITY It is understandable that such a miscon tfi.pit.ioh .should vxist in England, where" the degree of fertility is comparativelv constant throughout the country. Parts of New Zealand are, indeed, very" fertile (although probably not more so than most of England), and the climate is 'kindlier to the jfawner, but it must be remembered that, these areas are small in extent and not now to be cheaply acquired. The fertile land is all taken up except for .a few rather inaccessible areas at present heavily covered with bush. If the Government is wist: these areas will remain under bush at least until .some of the barren country has been afforested as far as possible. The occupied land can be roughly divided into three classes of farming country—sheep-runs on' the d,ry and hilly inland, and East Coast areas; dairy farms on the moister VVest Coast; and mixed farms, including cereal crops and' fruit, tobacco, or hops, restricted to certain special areas. THE "SM'ALL" FARMER Most of the sheep-runs are large, and si good deal of capital would be required t<» embank on this typo of farming although latterly small sheep farms exclusively devoted to the fattening of lambs have been successful. Dairy farms are usually much smaller, but the land is proportionately more valuable and capital is again "required. The smaller type of mixed farm is not an expensive venture, but the living in the past has been extremely precarious. .The outlook for this type of farmer' is now considerably brighter, as the present Government have brought into operation a scheme of guaranteed prices. A succession of bad years, of course, might bankrupt the. Government, but at "present the scheme seems to eontain* the germs of success. Even so, ICO acres in England could probably be farmed more profitably at present than a similar area in New Zealand, though improving methods of transport are steadily making markets more accessible to Dominion farmers.

The past experience of immigrants to the land has not done much to encourage optimism for the future. Between 1920 and 1930 many youths, mainly from the public schools, were encouraged to emigrate to New Zealand. The full story of their adventures would make unpleasant reading. The authorities at the time seemed to lose all sense of responsibility and fact, and these ..unfortunate immigrants were undoubtedly lured by highly-coloured, fantastic tales to a life of miaerv.

The Xew Zealand labourer was clearly aware of the effect such wholesale immigration would have on his earnings, but not so clear where the fault really lay. He vented his faeiings on the newcomers. Many of thenr were quite unsuited to (lie life they were asked to lead, and the hard-bitten ucruatter in whose charge they were placo4 soon made them aware of the fact. Some were successful, either by luck or gdot 'management, some returned bom'', but a great, number were

forced to toil in conditions which were (and still are) definitely unpleasant.

SEEKING A STIMULUS

So much for the rosy hopes with which they had set out. It says much for their pluck and spirit that they have been ' able to hang on at all, and have not swelled the ranks of the unemployed. The picture is a gloomy one. but in view of possible future attempts at similar immigration it is desirable that it should be widely presented. In the light, of this practical experience it is ve.ry difficult indeed to see any possibilities of success for similar .schemes. Yet they are still considered. The man with capital is fairly sale, but it. does seem obvious that the openings even for him are limited and very rarely to be found. . Therefore it follows that the would-be immigrant must be prepared to buy land at a cost very little below the cost oi averago English farmland, or else work as an agricultural labourer in a country where unemployment is by no means a solved problem. The fetish of emigration to the land tends to obscure other possibilities. The optimum population of New Zealand is probably between 10.000,000 and 1.5,000.000. Natural increase is too slow, immigration by other nationals who accept a very low standard of living has been advanced as a solution, but will certainly never be accepted by New Zealanders, and is probably repugnant to the Empire at large. How, then, is emigration from the British Isles to be stimulated? IXDESTRIAE EXPANSION! So far the claims for a natural industrial expansion have never been sufficiently emphasised. The Government, it is true', have professed themselves keen \o supjfortl internal .industry, but have not so far shown much interest in the possibilities of attracting private capital for this purpose from abroad. It. is the one profitable method of expansion left in New Zealand. There are plenty of pamphlets available offering inducements to the. settler to grow apples or raise slice]) in the Dominion, but. I have never vet seen any inducement offered to industrial firms to build their factories there.

The advantages are real enough—cheap sites for building purposes; cheap unlimited water-power for electricity'; raw materials of every kind either actually or potentially tit hand; coal and iron in abundance and some oil; a climate in. which while men may work with the maximum of ofliciency, and, lastly, some [immunity against/ the possible effects of war.

The chief disadvantage of the Dominion is its distance from the world's markets, so that the manufacturer must idepend on sales at home. Industrial expansion as outlined above would assist in the solution of .the present impasse, since labour, skilled and unskilled, follows industry, creates a home market, stimulates fanning, and eventually ' allows agricultural immigration to become practicable. The social services of New Zealand are even now sufficient to serve a population four times its present' number.

New Zealand, with a population of 15,000,000 and. a resultant potential army of 1,000,000 men, would be free from foreign military domination. No gfreat flight of imagination is needed to envisage the day when the Empire's existence may depend on the ability o the Dominions to defend themselves. And the final argument in favour of renewed emigration is'incontrovertible—if our Empire, representing democracy, is unable to populate its waste spaces, then democracy will have no moral title to their possession.