COMMUNITY IMMIGRATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20100, 2 December 1930, Page 15

COMMUNITY IMMIGRATION.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE PRESS. Sir, —Chemists and engineers have between themselves been responsible for doubling the food production powe-s of this earth in the last few years. I refer to advances in manuring and advances in tractors, transport, etc. This revolution is having repercussions on our export prices, as well as the purely monetary side of trade. Can the pastoral industry alone carry this country for all time? Has not the marvellous development of artificial silk alone had its influence on wool prices? Wisely controlled large-scale immigration could bo used to correct the faults in our economic orientation. I have been twitted with the fact that it is dangerous to talk of immigration when we cannot solve our unemployment problem. I believe that immigration controlled by a public territorial investment bank would indirectly give work to many Now Zealanders, cut

capita l pk.» trUS ' U °" delj fc burden per our tr? u , s a c ' lanc o to rationalise basis V»,n P H rt lndu stri ca on a saner our v' tn - y are at present, and by Curnor , i g T G Ule world a Pattern in and instructive achicvoitrilroo * set " ls so easy to organise for side nf r l l a . are » and tlie destructive smrinti but when it comes to a sn ootli working machine that can pro- \ 0 "pessaries first, then leisure, and the amenities for a full existence, we must venture into the unknown. A bank is the rightful hub of our -•conomic liie, and if it i s to be the power and controlling centre of this lminigi.int million I have written about U should gat-hei to itself the superior rams relating to the departments of lire, such as_ power, fuel, transport, dairying, agriculture, industry, housing, education, and those idealistic agencies which are responsible for character, saving, and fair dealing. In my previous letter I stated that the youth should be given better wages, but that forced savings be taken amounting on an average to £.2 per week for five years, for which no interest would be given. I will go further now and say that out of that sum £IOO each be given for all time to the State towards the factories and machinery of life, which, owing to its being debt-free, will ever provide tho means of existence for those who wish to work. Girls should be paid sufficient to save on the same basis, so that on marriage they could be equal with their husband in purchasing a debt-free home.

Tho first year of our Canterbury iinnk would be given to planning. There would bo port planning, town planning, food, clothing, housing, fuel planning, etc., etc., and as a result of all these, finance planning. Now it is evident that as this State could not be selfcontained, some commodities must be produced in excess to pay for those received, and the real skill of control would be in creating a smooth-running machine. I believe it is easier to provide for a million immigrants than for 50,000, because errors in estimating would occur in the smaller number out of all proportion to the larger number. For instance, 50,000 all over New Zealand would bo accommodated by our present finance machinery. The result would probably be :i building boom with fictitious values ..bounding, and the inevitable depression as nn aftermath. But a million in ten years is frankly impossible with our present machinery. Hence my thesis for this new immigrant bank.

As a result of finance planning it may be deemed necessary to grow all sugar from beet in Canterbury rather than import from Java or Fiji. £750,000 worth of same would be required for the full quota. But it would be from an exchange point of view rather than ideas of Free Trade or Protection that, the bank would determine development. Java or Fiji would not. be likely to want goods in payment for their goods. The same question arises in transport; potrol for trucks lands us in exchange difficulties, but our gasworks, power stations, etc., can supply Diesel or steam fuel. If we spend three or four millions a year with the West Coast for coal, we know we have a good chance in selling them our productions, thereby making exchange easy. Thus if the first year were spent in planning and each subsequent year for ten years we received 100,000 immigrants, and they saved on tho basis suggested, at the end of that time the hank would have £.430,000,000. That is not all; besides this £.120,000,000 would have been withdrawn from tho bank to pay for private homes. Thus £550,000,000 would be available for capital works in that short tinie. This again besides the food and clothing, etc., consumed during that period. Tlie banks assets at the end of the period would read something like this:— £ Port 6,000,000 Suburban railway . . 10,000,000 Warehouse and shops 20,000,000 Motor transport . . 14,000,000 Factories .. ■ • 100,000,000 Buildings and roads . . 200,000,000 Land .. . . 20,000,000 Balance . . • • 00,000,000 £430,000,000 Private homes paid for individually . . 120,000,000 £550,000,000 At present in New Zealand the capital invested in factories amounts to £64,700,000. For comparison with our factories which would not be competitive, and therefore not unnecessarily duplicated, we can reduce the value to £32 millions. Thus it will be seen that at £IOO millions I am providing for three times the existing New Zealand factories. If, say. the boot, implement, or woollen industries wished to rationalise and come into this state, they could do so and have, say, 85 per cent, of the capital provided free of interest. But the bank would bo well represented on the directorate and tho industries concerned would have to provide wages according to standards required. The new state would act in sympathy with and not in a manner to undermine tho rest of the country.

j Though this state would provide its own milk it would endeavour to buy butter, wool, mutton, etc., from the j rest of the country, while the other ! producers afford a market by buying its wares. I According to the genius shown in ! building would this community prosper. With such a volume of building an epoch could bo made. One of the vital factories would be a cement works. With good cement cheap, miracles can bo worked with Canterbury's shingle fan. Hollow walled concrete homes could be built at a price wood could not look at. Moreover, from the personal point of view it is much easier to train the artisans for concreto construction than that of wood, and moreover, a demand such as I have indicated would set timber prices soaring. The port location should bo from the estuary to the Waimakariri. To dredge a wide canal half a mile or so back from New Brighton and Waimairi beaches would provide a waterway through a factory area big enough for millions of people. The wonderful water supply, general location, and nearness to the cheapest of building and roading materials, besides giving possibilities of factory access to the sea, make this region suited for factory area of our immigrant state. The suburban railway would have to be planned on generous lines, because ic would take 70,000 acres to house these folk—that is, over 100 square miles. You may find a big settlement near Bangiora, another on the hills between Halswell and Tai Tapu, another in the Prebbleton-Lineoln region, etc. To link up these people a fast electric railway would be necessary, it would be carried on a shinglo bank, and be a wide gauge, while the trains would be twostorey. The service would be free because it would be cheaper to rate than collect fares. Moreover, it would be desirable to keep motor-cars at a minimum to preserve the general finances. It is also imperative to avoid congestion. By arranging general business so that there are different times for starting work, the railway loading can be spread and so work economically.

To give an idea of what good planning can do, this new state could I" 1 ' 81 ] 1 in t/ee country on our plains at a minimum cost if done before building operations; on the other hand compare Sydney:— Darling Harbour branch railway, 14 miles, £675,000 per mile. Sydney Central to St. James, li miles, £1,700,000 per mile. Sydney to Granville, 15J miles, £44(5,000 per mile. Flemington to Belmore and Dulich Hill to Glebe ftnd Darling Harbour, 134 miles, £280,000 per mile.

That is nothing to the Sydney bridge, etc., all of which are on borrowed money. It is so easy to borrow, so hard to pay. That borrowing causes employment is an illusion; it is borrowing which ultimately reduces the worker to a serf, because in the long run you pay one, two, or three pounds for one pound's worth of goods.

I grant you can't go flying while travelling on a moving train; in other words, you have to run your world more or less as it has been running. But I have set out tc show that it is possible to run an immigrant state on other lines, but to that end a new orality is necessary—tho morality of good wages to youth, along with youth's steady and equal thrift, the result of which is in the buildings, transport, factories, farms, harbour, etc. It doesn't take much faith to remove mountains nowadays; the machinery is so good. Likewise a debt-free state can become the purpose of an enlightened faith, and that faith could be very soon converted into reality, and that reality could allay the fears that set so many men at one another's throats.—Yours, etc.,

L. C. WALKER. Hornby, December Ist, 1930.