GRIT, GRACE AND GUMPTION NEEDED BY IMMIGRANTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18465, 17 May 1928, Page 5

GRIT, GRACE AND GUMPTION NEEDED BY IMMIGRANTS.

BOYS FROM ENGLAND SHOULD BE TRAINED IN NEW ZEALAND. Grit, grace and gumption are the qualities which the Rev F. B. Allen, a visitor from Southwark, England, considers are required to be possessed by immigrants from the Old Country if they are to settle successfuly in New Zealand. Mr Allen stated in an interview this morning that he had gone into the back-blocks of Australia and New Zealand, and what had impressed him about the immigrants being brought out was that they were not young enough to adapt themselves to colonial conditions. In England the Church had a number of institutions for training young men for life in the dominions, and he considered that instead of training them at Home a better plan would be to bring the boys to New Zealand at a younger age, and establish institutions here for their training. It was a mistake to bring youths from busy centres at Home and expect them to settle down to an entirely different mode of life in New Zealand or Australia.

The unemployment question in the Old Country, he considered, was one which no Government could settle. It was not a matter of politics; it was simply a matter of over-population, and while the “dole” had saved the situation for the moment, it had unfortunately helped to create a class of young man who was a burden to his country owing to his inability to obtain employment of any kind.