THE Wairarapa Age THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1936. OUR GREATEST NEED.

Wairarapa Age, 18 June 1936, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1936. OUR GREATEST NEED.

Nearly everyone is Agreed that the Dominion needs a bigger population, not only for the more advantageous development of its resources, but for its safety. The action of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in setting up a special committee to report on immigration must, therefore, be regarded as well-timed, but the whole question of building up the population ought to be examined from a national and fully responsible standpoint. Immigration no doubt must take its place in comprehensive plans aiming at expedited national development, but there can be no question of rushing into hasty schemes for the introduction- even of British migrants. Much of the major development of the Dominion in items such as railways, roads, harbours, power supply and other details is capable of serving a greater population without additional cost and at a reduced cost per head, but account has to be taken also of existing unemployment and of the limits that are placed meantime on the extension of industrial enterprise. The practical starting point must be a methodical examination and overhaul of our existing economic organisation aiming at the extension of selfsupporting industry. It is by a direct’ attack on factors now operating to limit and narrow employment, and so to check and discourage a healthy natural increase in population, that we shall best open the way to immigration that will be advantageous' to all concerned. No enterprise in this category would be worth much if it did not make full provision for doing everything that is possible to encourage the introduction of the best of all immigrants—the native-born baby. While there is no doubt about the desirability of opening the way to immigration with as little delay as possible, the Dominion’s first duty is to its own people. One of the speaker at the meeting of the Wellington. Chamber of Commerce at which it discussed this question said, amongst other things, that there was a shortage of skilled artificers in every trade and that it would, be wise to go to Great Britain to secure skilled men, not only because they would help to develop industry, but also because they would teach the young men in trades in New Zealand. In dealing with any shortage of skilled workers, however, consideration, surely should be given first and foremost to the possibility of filling vacancies of this kind with New Zealanders now much less satisfactorily placed than they would be in skilled trades. Amongst other things, consideration should be given to the possibility of instituting special training schemes for the benefit of young men who have been, denied in the years of depression the opportunity they might otherwise have had of qualifying in skilled trades, >

In any worthy treatment of our population problem, full weight must be given to the fact that, under loose and imperfect methods, we are wasting both material and human resources and that the second item of waste is much the more serious of the two. Not only are we allowing far too large a proportion of our youth to drift into unskilled and blind-alley occupations, but we are exiling a large proportion of the best brains trained in our university colleges. This is a procedure which only escapes the reproach of criminality by being almost inconceivably stupid. It is the saddest and most alarming fact of our national life to-day that we are exporting many of the best of our talented and trained young people and getting precisely the results that might be expected from that

fatal and fatuous policy. If we are to do better in this respect and in others and to open the way to a growth of population worthy of our country, we must in the first place make an orderly survey of our human and material resources and of the possibilities of organising and employing them to very much better advantage. THE PLACEMENT SCHEME. A departure in policy on which the present Government may be congratulated unreservedly is the placement scheme introduced by the Employment Division of the Department of Labour. In essence /he scheme is a means of enabling employers and . displaced workers in all parts of the Dominion to get together. Methodical 'inquiries are made by the placement officers into the qualifications of workers and into employment vacancies. The results already shown are excellent. In a period of no more than six weeks, private employment has been found for 705 men who were on relief or otherwise unsatisfactorily placed. Of the positions thus made available, about one-half are permanent. Through the agency of the Masterton office alone, 19 men have been placed in permanent positions, and 18 in temporary positions. This record speaks for itself as an indication of what may yet be accomplished under the placement scheme. Employers and workers alike obviously should mike the fullest possible use of the machinery the Labour Department has provided. At its present stage of development the scheme attacks directly and effectively elements of disorganisation which aggravate and intensify unemployment. It is plain, too, that the benefits of transferring workers from relief to normal employment, particularly when this last is permanent, will tend to be cumulative. In the., extent to which men are established in normal employment, the purchasing power of the community will be increased and its burdens will be lightened. It seems not unlikely that, in addition to what Is already being accomplished, the scheme may throw valuable light on methods of cutting down unemployment by means of special training and in other ways.