TEST FOR IMMIGRANTS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4593, 1 August 1923, Page 3

TEST FOR IMMIGRANTS.

'‘UNFITS?’ TO BE WEEDED OUT. ' NEW SOUTH WALES SYSTEM. ‘•The New South Wales Government does not propose to train every migrant, and then to settle them on the land,,”' said Sir Joseph Carruthers (vice-president of the executive council). “What is proposed is that those who need training shall receive such at the joint cost of the British and Australian Governments tp a limited extent. In other words, instead of sending boys and men to employment on farms, or to settle on farms without testing their qualifications and fitness, there will be a probationary test on a training farm, when the ‘unfits’ will be weeded out and only those qualified will be placed on the land, either as workers or as settlers. The New South Wales Government already receives about 2000 boy imj; migrants each year from Great Brit- # ain. These are tested, and trained at Pitt Town and other Government farms in the State. It costs about £3O per unit to train them, and hitherto New South Wales has borne all the cost. Now it will be shared. The result of the training is that boys who could only earn 16s a week ‘ and keep are able to secure 25s a week and keep as a result of a few months’ local training. Economically it is a sound system, and. helps to eliminate the unfits and to increase the efficiency of all. The migration agreement simply provides that the expense of training shall be Jointly shared by the British and Australian Governments.