PEOPLING THE DOMINION

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 6

PEOPLING THE DOMINION

It is evident from .the discussion in Christchurch by the Dominion Executive of the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union on the subject of immigration that some people unthinkingly regain this question from the point of view of unemployment.. Mis. 1. K. Barrer’s proposal in favour of a plan for the systematic augmentation of the country’s population by selective immigration was on sounu lines. This country is capable of carrying a much larger population, and it is necessary that it should in order that the public utilities rail, transport, hydro-electric power, and so on—may be bi ought to full profit, that taxation may be spread over a wider area, and that the country’s industries may benefit from a higher domestic consumption of their products. On these grounds the case for a plan of immigration is unanswerable. If the right type of people aic encouraged to come here the result should be an increased demand for labour through the greater activity of our industries promoted by the increased demand for goods. Hence that immigration would relieve unemployment instead of accentuating it. Some of the speaket s contended that an effort should be made to place unemployed people on the land before bringing out new settlers, but it must be plain to those who have studied the problem of relief through the provision of rural occupations that a very large percentage of the unemployed arc quite unsuited for these. To place them on the land would mean inevitably a further burden on the State sooner oi latei.