DUTY TO EMPIRE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5444, 5 July 1929, Page 3

DUTY TO EMPIRE.

ABSORBING IMMIGRANTS. FILLING COVETED SPACES. While agreeing that it was not desirable that immigrants from England should be received into the Dominions during a time of unemploy ment, the Hon. Sir John Sinclair, in a thoughtful address in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, expressed the hope that when the position was relieved New' Zealand would, as a unit of the Empire, take its full share of migrants and not permit land to be empty and to be coveted (says the Dominion).

The question of the distribution of immigrants over the Empire, he said, was not one of a temporary nature — it had far-reaching consequences. We in New Zealand should be taking our share of desirable immigrants from »the Mother Country/ Canada was taking thousands and could be looked to to take millions of unemployed, while the Dominions as a whole must follow the example or allow their greatest asset — man-power — to weaken. New Zealand wanted to build up its part of the Empire. Another and much-discussed phase of the problem was that concerning the empty spaces of the Dominions, which might become world questions. It was to be hoped that that time would be far distant, so that the Dominions could set their house in order. Money, of course, would be eeded to fill the empty spaces, but here again the Mother Country would help. The problem was not of any one Dominion, but of the Empire as a whole. Vacant spaces were coveted. If our own people occupied those spaces th-.n we would be doing our share in assisting the Homeland. Two matters of importance were the temporary cessation of immigration during times of unemployment, and the need for the right class cf immigrant—that was , immigrants whose coming would both improve their own position and supply the requirements of the Dominion for the time being. Men and women should not leave Home except under conditions and at times when they would have a reasonable chance to make a living, and they could not do that if unemployment was prevalent. “If we concentrated on getting the country worker, and all the other Dominions did the same thing, then we should be bringing about a conflict of interest between the Mother Country and the Dominions, because that is just the class of worker the Mother Country needs herself,” said Sir John Sinclair. “When we get back to our normal prosperity we look forward to taking large numbers, as we did in the past, of English immigrants of all classes, and by so doing we will be taking our share of the unemployed of the Mother Country and at the same time strengthening our own Dominion. We must move on, we must not stand still.””