The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1928. IMPERIAL MIGRATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 239, 9 October 1928, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1928. IMPERIAL MIGRATION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

It is a matter for public congratulation that this country is to learn something at first hand about migration within the Empire from a distinguished public man who is officially responsible for that department of Imperial policy. The visit of Lord Lovat should do much to enlighten the public mind here as to the real intentions of the British Government in this matter, and the possibilities of emigration as applied to the grave problem of unemployment at Home. But it is much to be regretted that our distinguished visitor will not find here any definite practical plan ready drafted by our own Government for him to consider, and to adapt as far as possible to the common needs of Britain and the Empire. Among the remarks made publicly by Lord Lovat yesterday we welcome most particularly his assurance that he has come to New Zealand with his mind entirely free from preconceived ideas. On this side of the world we have learned with good reason to dread the advent of those who from time to time visit us with their minds already made up about "the colonies" and their potentialities. Lord Lovat must already be aware that in loyal and patriotic devotion to the interests of Britain New Zealand is second to no other division of the Empire. But he has also realised that we have our own local difficulties to consider and our own problems to solve, and though he has already said that he wishes to form his opinions from personal experience and from information gathered on the spot, he is likely to admit at the end of his two weeks' stay that the great question which he has undertaken to investigate is in reality very much more complex than it sometimes seems to many who have viewed the situation only from afar. We say this chiefly because Lord Lovat has already indicated that he has failed to grasp the nature of the special difficulties that at present impede the flow of population from Britain to the Dominions oversea. In an interview which appeared in our columns yesterday he stated that there is no reason why immigration should congest the labour market here, and at the A. and P.A. luncheon he assured his hearers that where land settlement is carried out extensively unemployment must tend to disappear. We know that every newcomer, so far as he supports himself, helps to increase the country's wealth, and thus to provide further employment for labour. But this process of transforming the immigrant into a producer is often slow and arduous, and in the meantime—especially in periods of unemployment and industrial depression—the labour market may be overcrowded and the country must suffer. Of course if the Government had been alive to its responsibilities, and had prepared schemes for settlement or provided facilities beforehand for taking up imported labour on a large scale, the case would be different. But Lord Lovat will speedily discover for himself that on this question of immigration our Government has no policy, and he will therefore find it difficult at the present time to get much practical support for his own projects and plans.