AN IMMIGRATION PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 867, 13 July 1910, Page 6

AN IMMIGRATION PROBLEM.

It can hardly be doubted that tno very earnest deputation that waited upon the Prime urge the necessity for the provision of a large reservoir of domestic service will, upon reflection, feel rather disappointed with the reply which they received. Yet, upon the. whole, .our sympathy goes out to the Pkime Minister. Nobody can suggest that he or his Government or .the Seddon Government is in the smallest degree responsible for the anguish and trouble that were ■ so sharply pictured by the spokesmen of the deputation. Nor citu anybody claim that the Government can be censured for failing tu improvise an immediately efficacious remedy for a trouble that has its origin in causes almost beyond the reach of the politician. It could not.have been pleasant for Sir Joseph- Ward to pour a steady stream of-cold water upon the hopes of the deputation: ho must have realised as acutely as anybody the sharp human pain which lie was asked to remove. Wo are very strongly of the opinion that the Government can do a great deal to lighten, the burdens upon our women by adopting a vigorous immigration policy. Wo think also that the Government hiiii sadly neglected its duty in failing to give a great deal of attention to the provision of a good supply of domestic servants and farm labourers. At the sa.mo limn we are bound to say that the facts being what they are, the rather conservative mood of the Prime Minikter, in the face of a • deputation equipped with full of emotion and pathos, is in its,way rather

admirable. New Zealand is, as ho says, "under stupendous difficulties, in the matter of rates and distances." It has to face the competition 01 larger, keener,' and betterorganised countries pressed 'by the same need for domestic servants. To examine tho causes of our own acute need would be to write the social and political history of New Zealand, and'such a task Is beyond our tlnsiro and intention. Whatever can bo done, however, should be done; and the Government can count on tbu support of the great majority of the public if, realising the impossibility of removing ajl _ the hardships so eloquently pictured by the deputation, it yet determines to set aside a very substantial sum for the supply of domestic and farm labourers from abroad. If ten thousand domestic servants arc wanted, and cannot be gov, that is no reason why the country should not enjoy the relief of receiving one thousand suitable girls. The problem cannot, perhaps, be completely solved; but it certainly can be partially solved, and the Government can feel quite satisfied in its own mind that it cannot spend money more popularly or more wisely than in encouraging the immigration of domestic and farm labour of the right sort..