Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1927. THE NARROW NECK!

Grey River Argus, 2 March 1927, Page 4

Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1927. THE NARROW NECK!

The Bishop of London, lit. Rev. Dr. Ingram, in his self appointed Dominion tour as an advocate of immigration, aims doubtelss primarily to better the lot of such of iris countrymen as unemployment obliges to seek economic salvation overseas. It is a laudable undertaking, calculated also to ease the pressure upon the pockets of such others of his countrymen as actual want does not compel to emigrate. He told a Wellington audience this week that the reason why only one-tenth of three millions sterling that the British Government Ims provided for empire settlement. has not been spent is “the narrow neck of the bottle” is at the Dominion end- It is to be hoped, therefore, that in the desire to force the pace, His Lordship does not, risk breaking the bottle. While from ten to twelve thousand immigrants have yearly been coming here, he thinks we have room for many more than that each year, but that they must be of the “right sort.” When, however, it comes down to fin lacks, the right sort indicated by the distinguished visitor are farm labourers, domestic servants, and more people for the railways. Possibly after he has been here as many weeks as he as yet has been days, however, Dr. Ingram may ascertain that the thousands already unemployed here are of just the classes he has mentioned. 1 le finds that there is a good deal of importance in the terms used to describe the process which, he has in view, and that, while the word emigration has a sort of slur attached to it, tlie elimination of the letter “e” from the word is likely to eliminate a lot of the opposition to the tiling itself. This is a point also on a little further acquaintance with the state of feeling here may induce a revision of liis preconception of the Dominion situation. Migration, it seems, should be regarded as'-a moving of citizens from one part of the Empire to another, with a feeling of being welcomed and respected 1 as fellow citizens. Certainly there is a decided difference in the reception say of His Lordship or the Duke of York, and those Empire citizens in search of a job. The exigencies of the situation are to blame", no doubt- The movement which His Lordship has in inind is unfortunately calculated to lie reciprocal in one sense only, which he has very aptly defined Insaying: ‘‘Let New Zealand and Great Britain help one another, the Dominion in taking the surplus population, and Groat Britain? I y sending only those who would :

make good cilizeiis.’’ ’I here the capai'ily to give altogether exceeds I the capacity Io receive the gift. ! That, is I lie' fly in Hie migrat ion I jam. 11 is Lordship is doubt less al ■ ready well aware lie is up against 1 tin problem of cap'll a I ism, in that 1 :dl the selociioi) that, is humanly possible cannot eliminate from the gift of migrants those who must ( compete for the jobs already held , by New Zealanders, because it is nearly all jobless people—nearlx all workers in occupations already over-supplied with labour in this count rv—-of whom the Old Country is so anxious 1o make a gift. Dr. Ingram does not want to send one man over who would pul another out of bis job, so that he will be wise to study the possibilities of juvenile migration, which holds out the hope of reducing . Britain’s population in the manner best calculated to remove any slur

attaching to the influx 1o at least this particular Dominion; for Ibe only other types of migrants def ina'tely cited by him are at the present time calculated to prove a ilrug on the labour market. The Old Country’s necessity might be the Dominion’s opportunity, but it is one thing for a visitor ,to warn us we need more population and quite another to show us just where to ptit more population so that it shall fulfil the condition of displacing none of our own. It should, as the Bishop suggests, be as easy for a Briton Io move to New Zealand as for a Scotsman to move to England, or for an Englishman to cross the border from one country to another, but the obvious truth of experience is that, it is not. The reason is not simply that there is a prejudice, but that the movements in question are in Hie Old Country accompanied by such a bad set of social and economic conditions that the Bishop and many other leading people are prepared to travel the whole empire in order to alter them by lessening the extent of the movements of population within Britain in search of I the elusive job or of the means to subsist* Thus, what must, be guarded against above all things, not only by the Dominion people, but by the migration advocates, is the reaching of a state of equilibrium of imperial population on a level based upon Ilic standard, not of the Dominions as they are - now. but of that in Britain as it 'is at present. Such a solution 1 would be a cure worse even thar j I the disease !