IMMIGRATION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21216, 10 December 1938, Page 15

IMMIGRATION

NEW ZEALAND’S APPEAL HUNDREDS OF INQUIRIES "We w’ant to go to New Zealand. Will you tell us something about the country, how we can get there, and can we expect assistance with our fares?" Officials at the Dominion High Commissioner’s Office in the Strand are inundated with questions of this nature every day. By letter, by telephone and by personal inquiry, more than 100 people a day are making them. Some are British, others are foreigners, including Austrian refugees, Germans and Czecho-Slovakians. A steady stream of inquiries began early in the year. They were mostly from English people. After Herr Hitler marched into Austria, however, foreign applications became by far the greater. In the last fortnight the number of dally inquiries has soared higher than at any other time. Most of them are now from British people. Fear of war is only one motive. Others include lack of opportunity at home, or desire to begin life afresh in another land. Some of the younger people are influenced more by romantic ideas of travel. With others it is a case of “green fields and pastures new.” All Ages and Many Classes Those who inquire are of all ages, many classes and many professions. Some have money; others have little or none. Some are w T ell educated, a few are almost illiterate. Of the British people it is estimated that no more than 10 per cent follow up their questions with any thoroughness and eventually make a decision to go to New Zealand. For the majority, the fares for themselves and their relatives are too great a hurdle, and it is probable that they turn to the High Commissioner’s Offices of Dominions and Colonies nearer home. For a number of the British people a great attraction of the Dominion appears to be the legislation recently introduced by the Labour Government. High wages and pensions are a bait for a number of the inquiries, and in some cases the question has been asked as to whether a pension could be drawn immediately on arrival. One of the more naive applicants desired to know whether the New Zealand pension could be drawn on arrival and the Bri- | tish pension resumed on return to England.