SOUND PLANNING NEEDED

Southland Times, Issue 25358, 9 May 1944, Page 5

SOUND PLANNING NEEDED

POST-WAR MIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, May 7. That sounds planning is the essence of any future immigration scheme was stressed by the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, in a statement replying to questions asked him in London as to whether New Zealand will need immigrants after the war. Mr Fraser agreed that the need would exist but emphasized that, while New Zealand would welcome people coming, she must first provide for her own men in the forces. He said, “We have had tens of thousands of our men fighting all over the world and they have placed us under the same obligation under which the men of the United Kingdom, say, have placed this country, and Americans have placed the United States. It is only right that they should be provided for first in matters of employment and housing. “Some of them have been away four and a-half years. Their wives and sweethearts are awaiting their return. They will Want to set up homes and we want to give them the first chance of getting houses. It would be wrong on our part to encourage other people to come out immediately until we have housed our own men and re-settled them in their jobs. “After that there must be a proper scheme of immigration, considered in the light of the entire world economic position, and after consultation and arrangement between the United Kingdom and the Dominions.” KIND OF MEN WANTED Speaking of the kind of men who might first be encouraged to settle in New Zealand Mr Fraser suggested they might be men who had fought in British formations like the Royal Armoured Corps and the 51st Highland Division on the battlefields alongside New Zealand’s own fighting troops—men who had mingled well and easily with the New Zealanders and in whom this comradeship in arms had bred a desire td go out to the Dominion after the war. “Some of them want to come out and we want to have them out, but in good conditions of housing and employment,” Mr Fraser added. “Therefore, with proper planning, we could then throw open our doors, firstly to our kith and kin of these British Isles and then, perhaps, to the people of other nations who have stood by us. “One difficulty we face is that the kind of men we may need most urgently are the kind that you in Britain may be most reluctant to lose. You have tremendous rebuilding to do in this country. You will need all your building trade employees and tens of thousands of other skilled men for your own job of building up your nation again. We need building operatives very badly, too, and they are one of the very classes of people we would most welcome.”

As far as other types of workers were concerned there was a limit to New Zealand’s agricultural development, and it might be necessary ,to look to other industries to absorb immigrants. It might be desirable for industrial firms to establish themselves in New Zealand, thus bringing the machines as well as the men, but he reiterated that carefully planned, rather than, haphazard, immigration was essential.

AN ALTERED VIEW Commenting on Mr Fraser’s statement that the migration of industrial workers was desirable, The Daily Mail in an editorial, says: “Such a statement a few years ago would have been incredible. The industrial person was the last man the Dominions wanted. They, between the two wars, had enough out-of-works of their own, but Japan has shocked the overseas Governments into a realization of their grave under-population. The immigrant has again become as desirable as he used to be.” Discussing the desire of thousands of British fighting men to make their future homes in the Dominions after the war, The Daily Mail says: It is clear that successful migration depends on a sane economic policy. Migration must be planned and regulated, hateful though the idea may be.