The Daily News TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1934. MORE POPULATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1934, Page 6

The Daily News

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1934. MORE POPULATION.

OFFICES: NEW PLYMOUTH. Curris Street STRATFORD, Broadway. HAWERA. High Street

Last week saw the launching at Wellington of the “Dominion Settlement Association,” an organisation which hopes to remove the state of stagnation into which the Dominion’s population has drifted. It requires a good deal of courage to work for an increase in immigration while 50,000 registered unemployed are obliged to seek assistance from the State, but examination will show that there is room and to spare for the cultivation of a wider outlook upon the question of immigration than the one which sees in any new arrivals to the Dominion only an addition to the demands for employment which already exceed the work available. According to last year’s report of the Department of Immigration the number of migrants to the Dominion has fallen from nearly 15,000 in the year 1926-27 to 468 last year. In the earlier figures 11,239 were assisted migrants. Last year only four were assisted —the wife and children of a former migrant who has settled in New Zealand. The reduction in migration fell suddenly. In 1927-28 there were but 6000 migrants, and for the next three years about half that number arrived annually. In 1931-32 over 2000 migrants arrived, of which only 290 had been assisted by the State. The year before last there were 626 arrivals, but only 56 had been assisted. According to the report of the Director-General of Health the birth-rate last year was the lowest on record, being 16.59 per 1000 mean population. It is fairly obvious, therefore, that the condition of stagnation in population is likely to continue if reliance is placed on natural increase and the arrival of unassisted migrants only. The meeting at which the new association was founded included representatives of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers Association, Manufacturers’ Association, Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union, the Salvation Army and the Y.M.C.A. That is to say, the question of population was considered by those who have been in close touch with social problems, but are still of opinion that an increase in population is essential to the welfare of the Dominion. It is, of course, perfectly clear that to assist all and sundry to come to New Zealand would be absurd. There must be careful selection of migrants, and if possible some training in Great Britain for the new conditions they will haye to face. That is a matter in which the co-operation of the Home Government might be sought. Britain is anxious to stimulate migration from her congested districts to the Dominions, but it is obvious that the initiative must come from them. The new Dominion Settlement Association has been formed at an auspicious time, for within a few weeks the Under-Secretary for the Dominions, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, will be visiting New Zealand, and he is known to be much interested in the question of Imperial migration. The point is often overlooked that an increase in population not only increases the demand for employment, but helps to create work. New arrivals must have food, clothing and shelter, and these cannot be provided without the employment of labour. There is the further consideration that in regard to certain public works such as hydro-elec-tric power stations, railways, harbours and roads New Zealand has built for the future. On the present population the Dominion is over-capitalised in regard to those services, and a larger population is necessary to bring them to full profit. Such profit would reduce taxation and thus stimulate enterprise, which would in turn create employment, to say nothing of the expansion of the local markets that a larger population would give.

The new association has much work ahead. It has first to remove prejudice, ignorance and misunderstanding as to what a well thought-out plan of migration would signify, and demonstrate also the benefits that would follow its accomplishment. Nor need its functions end with State-assisted immigration. There is room for efforts among those in Britain who have a certain income, but who see few openings there for their children. Many of them would welcome a change to a community less hidebound in its social decrees, where their means would not be drained because certain customs must be obeyed, and where in such matters as sports and pastimes and in the education of their families they would find the expense considerably less than in Great Britain. The Dominion’s need for more population is undoubted, and any organisation that will minister with efficiency to that need should be thoroughly welcomed.