MIGRATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 228, 28 September 1935, Page 9

MIGRATION

IMPERIAL NECESSITY REPLY TO MR. FORBES LONDON PRESS OPINION (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrfghtf Received Sept. 27, 11.15 p.m, LONDON, Sept. 27. The Morning Post 4 ‘Mr. lorbes’ migration attitude is thoroughly intelligible as fur as it goes. There ’ S J‘° j’ 1 merely planting on t theDominions people for whom there is no Irrespective opportunity of earning a livelihood, but it is reasonable to suggest that an empty Dominion ought to be reviewing its economic structure and endeavouring to discover what new migrants might produce. Mr. Forbes rightly says, ‘Our first duty is to our own people,’ but it should also be part, of that duty to consider how 1,500,900 people inhabitatiug a country capable of holding at least ten times as many, is to escape the criticism of the non-British world clamouring for more land to colonise. Migration into New Zealand is an Imperial necessity of the first order, but as long as New Zealand relies predominantly on the production of a few staple exr ports, her opportunity for expansion is likely to remain strictly limited. Opportunities for work for an expanded population must be sought in directions hitherto unexplored. The search for such opportunities is a matter of concern not only to New Zealand, and also to other depopulated Dominions, but above all to Britain, who still bears tho main burden of their defence.”