IMMIGRATION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16448, 3 June 1919, Page 8

IMMIGRATION.

A FARMER’S VIEW. In his presidential address at the meeting ol tho Auckland Farmers 1 ' Union on Tuesday, Mr. .las. Boddie said: “Referring to tiio question of emigration, it is surely a sad commentary on our present land policy when wo find that with many millions of undeveloped and unused lands with fertility of soil and climatic conditions perhaps second to none in the world that a. prominent Minister of tho Crown should be found deliberately discouraging people coming to New Zealand to settle on the land, especially when it is remembered that Now Zealand is only carrying ten persons to the square mile as compared with England with 660 persons to the square mile. This .state of things must not be allowed to continue. New methods must be adopted. Wo have room, in this country for dt least 10,000,000 people who could live in comtort and contentment to tho great benefit of themselves and tho Empire at large,, and unless wo sec to it that something is done to make it possible for these lands to bo profitably occupied, first, by our own people, bo they returned men or town dwellers, and, second, by encouraging emigration from the Homeland, wo shall assuredly fail in what is our clear duty to ourtelves and to posterity. “That this view is justified for another reason must bo obvious to every thinking man—the two most essential requisites to insure a real progressive programme of development in either our primary products, our principal industries, or our public conveniences are labour and capital. The former, to my mind, is tlio first essential, yet he would be a bold man who would say that sufficient labour is available for all requirements. It is not; and, lienee, on this score also 1 advocate the principle of encouraging emigration, for surely the conditions of labour and the future outlook for the labourer and his family are nowhere so encouraging as in ‘God’s own Country.’ ”