OVER-POPULATED BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1923, Page 3

OVER-POPULATED BRITAIN.

STATE-AIDED MIGRATION THE BEST REMEDY., YOUNG PEOPLE FOR THE DOMINIONS REPORT OF SETTLEMENT COMMITTEE. The Overseas Settlement Committee of Britain, in its annual report, lays stress upon the necessity for Stateaided migration and settlement in the Dominions, and upon the importance of juvenile migration. The committee considers that one emigrant in three should be a juvenile The committee inclines to the belief that if the population of the Dominions were substantially increased, Britain, which exports far more largely per head of the population to the Dominion than to foreign countries, should be capable of , maintaining a population even greater than at present; but in existing circumstances the committee is convinced that over-popula* tion exists to such an extent as to menace the well-being of the whole community. The committee believes that the best remedy for this evil is to be found in a policy of State-aided ’ migration and settlement. It reiterates that the policy of Empire settlement is, as far as male settlers are concerned, a policy of settlement upon land and only upon land, since the oversea Dominions are in the main agricultural.

TRADE OF UNITED KINGDOM. In the committee’s report, tables are given showing the importance of the white population of the Dominions to the trade of the United Kingdom. Frpm one of these it appears that in 1921 Australia took exports from the United Kingdom to the value of £8 7s Id per head of the population; Canada, £2 3s 6d; Newfoundland £1 5s Id; New Zealand, £l2 0s 2d, compared with the United States 9s 3d; Europe, 10s 2d and France, £1 2s 7d. A sec,ond table, which excludes British exports of raw materials, gives similar results, the figures of course, being slightly reduced. Coming to the question of migration, the committee lays stress upon the importance of child and juvenile migration, female no less than male. Though involving considerable initial outlay, it is especially conducive to success, because of the adaptability of the young. The committee is so convinced of the necessity of this form of migration that it sees little prospect of the success of the new policy unless child and juvenile migration form not less than a third of the whole volume. EXCESS OF WOMEN.

There is an excess of women over men in Britain of about 1,700,000. The committee considers it would be a disaster if this excess were further increased by th? emigration of men. It points to the urgent and unlimited demand in the Domi-

nions for women as a means of repressing this inequality, and recommends liberal State assistance to women migrants. The single man should have a training of a kind to enable him to settle on the land. Married men with families are the most desirable of migrants. The committee draws attention to the difficulties which such migrants have in settling on ’the land, and asserts that no State-aided scheme will be satisfactory unless it affords migrants of this class greater facilic ties upon the land than have hitherto been afforded. The problem of the ex-Service man and woman merges in the general problem of oversea settlement.

CO-OPERATION WANTED. The committee points out that the suggestions which it makes for improving overseas settlement are prompted solely by a desire to further the policy of cooperation agreed upon at the conference of Prime Ministers. Great- Britain has don? “i}ot a little” to carry out this policy, and official machinery has been supplemented by the help of voluntary societies, notably the Y.M.CrA., the Salvatibn Army, the Church Army, and the Society for Oversea Settlement of British Women. But further voluntary effort is necessary, not only in Britain, but also in the oversea countries. The “special arrangements in the Dominions for the reception, distribution and initial supervision of British settlers” are still insufficient.

In a survey of the existing arrangements in the various Dominions, the committee says that Canada has not yet announced I its policy in regard to co-operation- under the Empire Settlement Act. The States ,of Australia have definitely declared in favor of co-operation, and do not actively encourage any immigrants except • those from Britain. Their arrangements for reception and settlement of immigrants are less complete than those of Canada, and child migration is in its infancy. In New Zealand, the committee states, assisted immigration has been /confined to skilled farm workers, Aniners, qualified domestics, and persons with / relatives or friends in the Dominion. Migration to South Africa is small. DOMINION’S POLICY.

In a statement at Auckland the Prime Minister announced that now the country was on a fair , way to prosperity the Government expected to be able to increase the number who would be absorbed without increasing unemployment. He gave it as his opinion that New Zealand could absorb not fewer than 10,000 British immigrants each year with advantage to the country.