The Waikato Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1933. SETTLEMENT FROM OVERSEAS.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19017, 7 August 1933, Page 6

The Waikato Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1933. SETTLEMENT FROM OVERSEAS.

For about four years organised migration bas been a dead letter. The movement of population, apart from the natural increase, has tended to be outward rather than inward, which is not a healthy sign in a yoking coijptry such as New Zealand, which calls on every side for population.apd deyelqpjnertt. Jt is not so very long since one of the sponsors of immigration encountered a stflTni of criticisip ftfl4 considerable unpopularity owing to his immigration policy, yet tfie fact remains that in Britain and in New Zealand migration must be resumed at some future time in the interests of both countries. The methods employed in past immigration schemes have come in for severe criticism, and it is clearly apparent that improved methods will have tp be devised in the near future. Still, what many of us are pleased to teyjn the failures pf the past must pot allowed to hinder us in embarking apon ft copiprebensive scheme for ipereased settlement and development. Under no sy?tppi cap Britain fiope to find Useful pmployjpppt fipr her present population and provide for the natural increase, which has sufiiered immensely as a yesult of tfie lyastage of man power in tjie war. In Net? Zealand, great though the achievements of tfie past and the rate of development in prosperous times, we cannot hope to progress nationally at a sufficiently rapid rate unless we pan secure an increase of population at a faster rate than the natural iperease provides. Migration of British people to New Zealand is the solution, but thp solution ipust he achieved by different methods froni those of the past- Migration cannot be welcomed in a form that throws labour haphazardly on the, local employment market to intensify the difficulties of the existing supply. Nor can we contemplate a return to past methods of settlement of new arrivals pn the land, where they are left to fepd f.or themselves in strange surroundings apd without the full benefits that accrue from experience and co-operation. Future migration schemes must entail a retention, of ipterest by the British Government in the settlers, and the direction of the stream of piigratiop ip Npjv Zealand jt§el£ tp tfipse area§ suitable and ppep for development and offering special facilities for the establishment of British communities which will represent more a transplantation of selfrCQptajned upits from Britain to New Zealand. We hpve to avoid the stream pf migrants intensifying the crowding of areas now quite sufficiently populated, such gs the maip centres, competing unduly for land in the more or less settled parts to the detriment of both native and introduced population, while leaving neglected areas with great potentialities in their virgip stale. A useful example of community settlement is furnished by the Italian colonies established in tfie Queensland canefields, which by virtue of community spirit and effort, have carved for themselves a far heater fqrtuifp than could ever have been possible in their homeland. If Italians epp do this with no organised .migration scheme to help, it should be possible for British stock to work wonders if competently settled iu selected areas.