LORD LOVAT'S MISSION.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1928, Page 8

LORD LOVAT'S MISSION.

REQUIREMENTS OF DOM INIONS

Representing Lord Lovat, who is at present in New Zealand investigating immigration problems, Mr F. Skevington, of the Rritish Treasury Department, arrived in Dunedin, and pmately heard deputations from the English Immigrants’s Club and the Council of Christian Congregations. Lord Lovat, who is Under-secertary of ■State for the Dominions and chairman of the Overseas Settlement Committee, was to have visited Dunedin himself, but after touring the North Island be was ordered by his doctor to rest at Wellington. Mr Skevington, who accompanied Lord Lovat on his tour of Canada,, has come to the South Island to continue the investigations. He was visited officially shortly after his arrival by the Mayor (Mr W. B. Taverner), who expressed regret that Lord Lovat was not able to come to Dunedin. Mr Skevington is accompanied by Mr H. D. Thomson, Under-secre-tary of Immigration for New Zealand, and on bis return to Wellington will travel to Australia with Lord Lovat to complete the investigations. In an interview with an Otago Daily Times reporter, Mr Skevington stated that Lord Lovat’s department acted in co-operation with the colonial Governments, and did not send out people except by arrangement when they were needed. Since the war the flow of immigrants bad dropped, and the object of Lord Lovat’s visit was to see what could be done to alter the situation. Lord Lovat, who hoped eventually to be able to bring immigrating back to normal, considered that there was just as good a class of person in the Old Country ns ever before and that there was no lack off the colonising spirit or the love of going to a new country. He had been very much impressed with the quality of the pastures in the North Island and the amount of stock they could carry. He hoped that it would be possible to arrange some scheme so that . people working on the land would be able to acquire holdings of their own if they were found suitable. These matters he would take up with the Government.

Some aspects of the immigration question were discussed by Mr Skevington in an address at the Rotary Club’s luncheon.

In coming before them without Lord Lovat, said Mr, Skevington, lie felt that lie was presenting “Hamlet” without the Prince of Denmark. In this outpost of Scotland nothing, but the peremptory orders of his doctor would have prevented Lord Lovat from attending the luncheon. The speaker could truly say that during the. two months lie" had been in the dominions he had met more Scotsmen than in the Old Country. He might almost suggest that geographies ought to lie altered, and that England should jr described as a small hut. fairly important country near Scotland.—-(Laught-er.) During Ins tour of Canada and New Zealand he had found that Scotsmen made excellent colonists. .Lord Lovat hoped to be able .to, speak, in Wellington before he . left New Zealand, and proposed to deal with tlm nature of Empire policy in connection with migration. He would be speaking for Dunedin as well as Wellington. Mr Skevington stated that lie civ' not propose to touch on those more important aspects of the question, hut would say a few words on the business side of migration. He must first g back to the Imperial Conference 'ot 1921, when it was recommended that steps should be taken to secure some scientific distribution of the white population of the Empire. On the one hand was the small and densely-popu-lated Mother Country, and on the other the large dominions, with immense natural resources and comparatively small populations, and the idea was to direct properly the movement of people from the Mother Countiy and the growing requirements of the dominions. As a result of the recommendations of that conference the Imperial Government passed the Empiie Settlement Act, which empowered the secretary of State for the Dominions to co-operate with the dominion Governments and other organisations in dominions in carrying out schemes for assisting migration, settlement, and development. In the Act the Secretary of State for the Dominions was authorised to spend up to £3,000,000 a year on migration, and the Overseas Settlement Committee was created to carry out the work, which, it was recognised, would mainly concern agricultural development. It was obvious that that was the primary need, and, while the Imperial Government assisted iu other directions, its activities were mainly concerned with agriculture.

There was no idea, said the speaker, of moving the surplus population iron the Mother Country to the dominions Still less was it the desire of the committee to transfer unemployed people to the colonies. The basis of the Acl was that the Imperial Government could enter into negotiations with flic doni'iimn Governments or private ni~ ganisations so long as they provided 50 per cent of the cost of the scheme. The principle had been suggested hv the Canadian Government represents five at the Imperial Conference. this means no dominion had an ’

vantage over another. The principle also had the merit of keeping expenditure on the right lines. Any Government which was prepared to contrilmtr to the cost of a scheme must attach importance to it and believe that 0 was going to do good.

The main duty was to arrange for the provision of people to take up some agricultural work in the dominions. It did not claim that there was any surplus of

agricultural workers in England, but there was a good supply of men who had shown themselves to be capable og becoming agricultural workers. He had seen in Canada hundreds of meii who had come out from the Old Country with no previous fanning experence, and those men, after two or three years had been provided with the means of establishing themselves on farms Almost witlmut exception they wore on the high road to becoming successful farmers. The absence of previous experience had not lessened their chances of success. The committee endeavoured to train the migrants in the rudiments of farmi®?. It made a test of whether they would be able to stand up to the hard work, and whether they would be fond of the work. They were given a short course of milking, and handling horses, so that when they went to the colonies they woo'd have some experience and more readily assimilate the instruction they would receive. It was known, of course, that there was no rush of men to become agricultural workers, and it had been the committee’s experience that in order to get the right type in sufficient numbers and in order to tie them down to the land there ought to be facilities available for them to procure farms of their own if they proved suitable. He did not suggest that all immigrants would he: suitable or that a large proportion would he, but he did know that a proportion of those who migrated woo'd prove by their thrift, industry, grit, and adaptability that they would lie successful, and that if loans were given to them they would •. be repaid. Schemes of that nature were in operation in Canada, and thev were proving highlv successful. The percentages of failures was remarkably small. The scheme could be worked in. New Zealand if the best type of immigrant wore selected, and loans made to them, just as loans were made for the benefit of one’s own pocket. The experience of the committee, Mr Ske.vihgton continued, was that hovs of 16 and over made the best settler, In Canada it was possible to arrange for a. certain number of boys to settle on the land after serving for five years, and with that prospect of independence Canada could get a very good class of bov. He had discussed with the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce a scheme it had for bringing out boys. He had seen the boys, and had been greatly impressed with their character. He felt sure they would Ik? a credit, to the Old 'Country and to the Dominion, and he hoped that n similar scheme . could he arranged in the South Island. The boys’ passages would be provided by the Governments, .and all that would be required would he someone placed with the most suitable farmers. He realised that ‘the unemployment situation in New Zealand was difficult but the time would come when New Zealand would )be able to absorb hoys at. the same rate as before the difficult period. He was certain that there would be plenty of people who . would meet the requirements of the Dominion. The whole policy, of the.. Imperial Government was based an practical lines, ft was meeting real needs and entering only into schemes which would do good.