Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1937. EMPIRE MIGRATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19456, 15 October 1937, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1937. EMPIRE MIGRATION

In the light of recent experience, it is too much, perhaps, to hope that anything concrete will develop from the conference which sat this week in London to discuss Empire migration and development, but the discussions should serve, at least, to focus further attention on a question that is deserving of much greater consideration than it generally receives. Unfortunately, the whole subject is so entangled with various side-issues that it is difficult to obtain any clear-cut statement of the real aims or any policy that is generally acceptable. In opening the conference, for example, the Lord Mayor of London made a point of the widespread unemployment in Great Britain and suggested that work could be provided for these unemployed in the Dominions. This is a popular argument in some quarters, but it is not an effective one, because each of the Dominions has its own problem of unemployment and none is likely to see a remedy in any plan which proposes to increase the number out of work. On the other hand some of the Dominion politicians argue that because they have their own unemployed, migration should not be resumed, but this view is as shortsighted as the other one. Migration, of itself, is not a remedy for unemployment, but., contradictory though the statement may appear, unemployment can be much relieved by a Judicious redistribution of Empire population. Certain it is that all of the Dominions can support much larger popuations than they at present carry. Lord Bledisloe informed the conference that New Zealand, for example, was capabie of absorbing i 0,000,000 to 20,000,000 British people in the next half-century, and his claim is not likely to be disputed. Acceptance of this statement, however, does not mean agreement with the view that hundreds of thousands of people can be transported overseas annually and left to accommodate themselves in a new country. The resumption of immigration, even on a modest scale, requires a great deal of preparatory work and organisation, and it might even be said that if the preliminary work was efficiently carried out the question of migration would look after itself. Any country which is prepared to offer inducements and opportunities to people from the Old World to carve a niche for themselves in a new community and improve the living standards to which they have been accustomed will increase its population automatically and without the need for embarking on any grandiose scheme of immigration. Conversely, a country which restricts production, by whatever means, which adopts legislative measures that make it difficult for industry to function efficiently and profitably, and which reduces the freedom of, and the opportunities for individuals, is certain to stagnate and. finally, retrogress. It is admitted on all sides that New Zealand is in need of more people, but the records for the past few years show that more migrants are leaving the country than entering it, and it Is important that an endeavour should be made to ascertain the causes for a trend that is not natural and is so obviously detrimental to the best interests of the Dominion. Hitherto, the question has been considered only in general terms, and it is time that a careful examination of the whole position was made. Lord Bledisloe, than whom there is no closer student of Dominion affairs, insists that New Zealand’s crying need is for British capital and brains; yet the present position is that both capital and brains are leaving the country. The reason is that neither is permitted to obtain a reward equal to that procurable elsewhere, and unless conditions are changed the position will not be remedied. Some relevant factors have received prominence quite recently. Capital, to be effectively employed, should be invested in productive industry, but the experience in New Zealand is that industry is being crippled by legislation which compels it to operate under conditions which make it impossible to compete with products from overseas. The earnings of capital, brains, and labour are taxed more heavily in New Zealand than in any other country in the world, and even the primary producers are penalised by a land tax which has no parallel in any of the countries with which they have to compete on the world markets.

In these circumstances, it is not to be expected that British capitalists or British workers will invest either their funds or their labour in a country which denies Ihem a return equal to that procurable elsewhere. Nor do the disabilities end there. Most people are keenly concerned with the prospects for their families, but what are the prospects in New Zealand? Already the Government has gazetted a long list of industries and professions to which the doors are closed. It has removed the attractions which were formerly held by a life on the land, it has made industry in many

branches uneconomic and unprofitable, and it has killed the opportunities which formerly existed for embarking in such businesses as transport, chemistry, fishing, theatres, and a -host of other things which, as a result of the Industrial Efficiency Act, have become closed occupations and the preserves of monopolies. It is to these things which thoughts must be turned if the problem of population is to be solved, because, in the future as In the past, people with enterprise and initiative-—and they are the ones who are most desired—will make a path in the direction where opportunity offers. To-day, it cannot be said that New Zealand meets that qualification, and until it does it will not attract the population which it so sorely needs. On the broad issue of Empire migration there is scope for much investigation and ultimate activity, but unless New Zealand sets its own house in order it is not likely to attract the increased man-power which is vital, not only to its economic prosperity, but also to its effective defence.