A PROBLEM OF TO-DAY

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1922, Page 4

A PROBLEM OF TO-DAY

MIGRATION WITHIN TltF, EMPIRE

(By Lieut-Colonel L. S. Amery, ALP.)

Tlit* February conference put forward proposals for co-operation between the British and oversea Governments in a comprehensive scheme of migration and settlement. The British Government undertook to take part in such a scheme up to a maximum of £2,(>00,000 a .year. Of this sum it was proposed that about half should be devoted to assisted passages and other forms of assistance to actual migration. But it was contemplated that the assistance should lie largely by way of loan and not of free giant, and that in any case the cost should be shared equally between the British Government and the Dominion concerned. The other half was to be devoted to advances to settlers on the land, reckoned at a, maximum of WOO per settler, made ‘through the oversea Governments, or in certain cases through private organisations, providing that the rest of tlie cost of settlement and of the necessary advances (npiuuntiug as a rule to about CIOOO altogether) were found by the other Government or organisation ocneemod. It was the emphatic conviction of the conference that tlie direct settlement of men on the land as primary producers was the key to the whole problem, and that without it tlie capacity of. the Dominions to absorb any additional industrial and urban population was very narrowly limited. Senator Milieu, indeed, on behalf of Australia, was prepayed to go decidedly further than the British Government were willing to go at the time in the direction of large schemes for the open-ihg-up and development of new areas in Australia involving tlie raising by Australia, with the financial co-opera-tion of this country, uf sums of £20,066,000 or more over n short period of

years. The conference ol Prime Ministers, after full investigation, formally by resolution approved the proposals of the February conference, the Dominions undertaking to co-operate effectively with the United Kingdom in developing schemes based on those proposals, though South Africa made it clear that the limited field for white labour in the Union would preclude co-operation 011 tlie lines contemplated by the other Dominions. The conference further expressed the hope that the Government of the Union Kingdom would, at the earliest possible moment, secure the necessary powers to enable it to carry out it spurt in any of cooperation which may he agreed upon, preferably in the form of an Act which will make it clear that the policy <>l co-operation now adopted is intended to li ■ permanent. That the British Government is resolved to f 11i*iU the nisi of the conference has already been indicated in the King’s Speech at the opening of this session, and 1 hope it may not lie long before I am privileged to introduce, in the House of Commons a bill giving full effect to that resolve.

J need not say that the success or tailure of such a policy ol Umpire m* gratimi and settlement will depend entirely upon the soundness of the methods and detailed arrangements adopted *u ce-npri sti,u>! by the Government,, concerned, Though I could ~p ak al great length on that topic. I Would prefer to suggest to you a perusal of the admirably lucid and interesting animal report of the Oversea Settlement Committee, which, appeared last, mouth (Cmd. 1580). f will only

touch, in a sentence or two. on some of the most’important points that arc discussed in the report.

One is the need for preliminary testing and training, both here and overseas, for those who are to go lo the land. A trial ol only three or four weeks mi a training farm here is quite enough to wood out those who will never heroine agriculturists, and to prevent the rest loading tools when they route . lii the most elementary opi rations of farm work on the other side. An essential complement to such a farm here are training farms in tie Dominions, to which the newcomers can go straight without the risk Of being intercepted ami diverted into urban pursuits while awaiting in the big cities, and where they can learn linnetliing of local methods and conditions before being placed out among local farmers.

Keen with every training facility it is doubtful whether, among an adult male population of which over 91) per rent is industrial, we shall ever get enough men to meet the need ol the Dominions for workers to open up the land. But happily there is a vast juvenile population not yet settled down definitely to industrialism. To rescue these from overcrowded prolcessions anil industries,' and from even more soul-killing blind-alley occupations is one ot the most hopeful tasks to which we can sot our hands. A wonderful and still insufficiently appreciated work has been done in this respect by the child emigration and settlement work of T)r Bnrmmlo’s Hollies and other similar institutions, ami I am glad to think that, largely at the instigation of our committee, Dr Barlmrdo's Homes are now beginning to extend their sphere of activity to Australia as well as to Canada. A similar and no less hopeful experiment is now being initiated by the 81111th Australian Government, which is proposing to bring out some (>OOO boys between sixteen and eighteen and start them in life under selected-farmers, and with special arrangements for looking after their welfare and prospects. Another most important aspect of 'the problem is that of the migration of women. There is to-day a surplus in this country of J ,700,000 women. In the Dominions there is a small deficit of women measured simply by the standard of the arithmetical equality ot the sexes. But. measured by the standard of the social need for the services of women In household work there is a far greater deficit, and one that in every direction is having a most prejudicial effect on the social life of the Dominions. Here, too, much can he done by training to enable those without any experience to enter successfully upon domestic work overseas. In all questions dealing with the migration of women the Oversea Settlement Committee has received invaluable help from the Society for the Oversea Settlement of British AY omen, and has, in fact, fell that the work of giving information, advice, and assistance to women, especially to those travelling alone, can he far more effectively and sympathetically given through a voluntary organisation than through any Government office. . .

I ini.nlit say more generally tlmt it is the policy of the Oversell Settlement Committee to eo-operate with and relv upon the efforts of voluntary unoflieial organisations wherever they can both here and overseas. Such organisations as the Salvation Army, Church Army, Young -Men’s Christian Association, to mention only I wo or three among ninny, have* tloiio and ran do admnaide work, and in all I have said about (ioverninont iniatlve and direction I hope I have not said anything that would suggest the idea that we are not anxious to encourage to the fullest extent the good work done by private hollies. No less valuable can ho the work done by private organisations on I lie other side, in the way of friendly reception, advice, and subsequent help

to wQj-k. Indeed, I would appealj even beyond those private organisa- • tions to the whole. body of the public, > both here anti overseas, to give the 1 best of their help and sympathy to a | movement which is not merely one of economic relief on the one side, or of j the introduction of necessary and useful labour on the other, hut is, above all, a great movement of social regeneration and Imperial strength. » That, indeed, is the theme on which I should like to close. And if I may dare to end on a quotation \ would hid my fellow-countrymen, in the great language of Burke, “elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which, the order of Providence has called us. liv adverting to the dignity of tins high calling, our ancestors have turned a savto'e wilderness into a glorious Empire, and have, made tlie most extensive and the only honourable conquests, not by destroying, but by promoting, the wealth, the number, the happiness of the liiiiuauJStcc-i!