EMPIRE MIGRATION

Southland Times, Issue 19859, 3 May 1926, Page 7

EMPIRE MIGRATION

COMMITTEE’S REPORT VALUE OF FARM TRAINING THE COST OF PASSAGES. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) London, May 30. “There are hopes, and indeed indications, that partly as a result of the new passage of the land settlement agreement with Canada, Australia and New Zealand the outflow of settlers to those countries will shortly increase,” declares the annual report of the Overseas Settlement Committee, detailing the various assisted passage rates, of which the dearest are to Australia and the cheapest to Canada. The report emphasises Canada’s example and hopes that similarly cheap rates will be made available when there are temporary openings in other dominions. “It would be a mistake,” says the report, “to underestimate the importance of cheap rates for assisted passages which are now restricted to a definite class, including farm workers and domestics, but generally these cannot be readily spared from Britain. An unassisted passage to Australia or New Zealand costs £37 and to Canada £lB. It is obvious that few in this country, especially families, are at present able to pay the fare and incidental expenses. Therefore it is of the greatest importance that rates should be reduced to a minimum. While agreeing that the strenuous life overseas requires a high physical standard and that there is no reason to suppose that present standards are unduly high, it would seem desirable not to adhere too rigidly to fixed standards of height and weight because improved physique follows transfer to healthier and freer surroundings. The committee would welcome liberal and sympathetic interpretation by the Dominion selectors.” The committee agrees with the dominions’ view that the best land training can be acquired overseas, but thinks there are many advantages in brief testing and training here. The report says good results were obtained at Clay don, Westing Park and Catterick, all of which supplied men for Australia. Short courses of training similar to this type should be available to married men with families not experienced in farming, because it would tide them over the early difficulty of learning in a new land. The report quotes a letter from a wartime member of the Women’s Land Army, now in West Australia, on the value of the same training for women. The committee stresses the value of co-operative buying and selling by settlers to which New Zealand’s success may largely be ascribed. Statistics show that the total migrating overseas in 1925 was 140,594, compared with 155,374 the previous year. The decline was chiefly due to the falling off in settlement in Canada, but the Australian and New’ Zealand shipping strike was also a factor.