“A DISMAL FAILURE.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16848, 26 September 1922, Page 4

“A DISMAL FAILURE.”

IMM 1C RATI ON POLICY CONDEMNED. NECESSITY OP SETTLEMENT. The Government's immigration policy was condemned by Mr A. Spencer, president of the Auckland Employers’ Association, and President of the New j Zealand Immigration and Land Settlej ment League, in an interview with a I “ Lyttelton Times * reporter last evenj ing. | * ‘ The only real method of bringing about better times and genuine progress is to throw open the undeveloped lands of New Zealand to oversea immigration,” said Mr Spencer. ‘ r Ae far us a national settlement* policy is concerned, the Government is doing nothing. Some one must force them to act. That is one object of the league. We arc already going strong in the Auckland province and we hone to link up with organisations throughout New Zealand Business men and tho community generally coming to realise that- we can I increase mu* volume of exports and reduce the debt per head by importing more people of the right stamp to hear their share of the national liabilities and taxation. At the present juncture Great Britain has a surplus of ! population find the Imperial authorities | are anxious to co operate with the dominions in the task of solving the problem by emigration. It is costing the Government something like £100,000,000 a year to pay out- doles to the unemployed.—-That is a verv heavy burden. To strengthen the Umpire, the Government at Home has comir.uncated to New'Zealand, South Afri- | ca, Australia and Canada, details of a scheme, as propounded by Colonel Amery under which Britain offers to ° pay half cost of any land settlement in the colonies. If we in New Zealand throw open our Crown lands on a large scale, for the settlement of immigrants the British authorities will pay half the cost, even of transportation and improvement. Very little has been heard of that scheme out here and it is unfortunate that our Government is not fully alive to tho situation. In fact they have been badly left behind by other States such as Western Australia, which has begun on a really good scheme. T T p to the present West Australia has had offers from 100.000 i immigrants to come from the United : Kingdom and go on the land. Most j of those immigrants have money, so j you can understand what an asset they ; wHI be in tlieir new country. TIME FOR ACTION. “The time is- ripe for action in New Zealand. Wtj arc anxious to encourage our own Government to move, seeing that it has large areas of lane, available for settlement. In the whole of New Zealand 1 believe there are 40,000,000 acres partly settled, but only 18.000.000 acres are in real cultivation. That is a very striking fact. I In Wellington and Auckland there are I ■ something like 9,000,000 acres of land suitable for subdivision into small I farms. When are our resources to he utilised? People do not grasp the vast extent of our empty spaces. We can I carry 10,000,009 people in this country [ once we go in for intense cultivation. MEN OF THE WRONG TYPE. “For months we have been getting immigrants of the wrong type, I men who came out looking for skilled j work or ordinary labouring "Vprk and could not find it. In consequence I laige numbers of them have returned j to their own country. The New ZeaI land Government’s policy, or lack of j policy, has proved a dismal failure. J The effects are likely to be worse than | many people dream of. When those men return to tlieir English villages, I they tell a tale df woe and that acts to our detriment. I have come across ! numerous instances of this kind of tiling, of immigrants returning to the Old Country off passage money scraped up by relatives at Home as the result of some stoi£- of dismal conditions in New Zealand. Hundreds ol men are going Home t-o be sure of the unemployment dole, rather than hang about workless and penniless in Jew Zealand. The immigrants we want are ! men willing to go on the land, proi viiled the opportunity, is offered, as ifc is being offered in West Australia. If we got another 10.000 settlers in this country, they would provide work for i an additional 20,000 people in the towns. With a proper scheme in •operation, tlio artisans, bricklayer/? and plasterers would come out after the settlers. The New Zealand Government put the cart before the horse. CRUSHING TAXATION. “ The burdens of. taxation are crushing very heavily on the whole coraI munity of this country. Our national debt is £208,000,000. The unfortunate part is that there is no money for development because the big companies are heavily taxed to the extent of 8s 9d in the pound. Tt is impossible for them to find mone ? for extension. To. lend money they would have to get from twelve to thirteen per cent. The result is that many companies are investing money outride the colonics; j preferring even the rinks of Mexico to tho burdens imposed here. Cheap money is not available in New Zealand. | We are not producing enough to pay our debts, and the standing charges of interest on our loans amounts ,o £12,000,000 a year. We have to find another for administration purposes, for running the country, and all this in the face of falling revenue. There is every prospect that the Government will be another £2,000,000 short this year; last year it was £o .000,000 short. 4 4 The solution of the problem is land settlement oq, a large scale. We .must get suitable people here to share our burden and to help produce more; so enabling us to pay our debts. Tt is a job that must be tackled and it must be tackled without delay.’’ *