MIGRATION PROBLEM

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12615, 27 November 1926, Page 3

MIGRATION PROBLEM

FEWER LEAVING BRITAIN A DOUBLE DIFFICULTY TO FACE SHOULD BE PRODUCERS IN DOMINIONS A review of the migration problem in Britain and New Zealand, and some facts concerning production and 'mports were given in a statement made to the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, which held its annual meeting on Thursday, by the president, Air G. H. Marriner, who is also president of the New Zealand Federation. He said that before the Great War Great Britain had become dangerously dependent upon foreign countries for her supply of food and raw materials. During the war the National conscience was aroused, and tho Nation appeared to be determined to rectify thi« dangerous position. Since the termination of the war little had been done tp decrease this dependence, and in soni directions the Empire’s supplier were less than pre-war. Taking the average for the last two years. Great Britain has been forced to maintain an army of 1,300,000 unemployed persons, and her population was increasing at a greater rate than before the war. As the natural increase of births over deaths in Great Britain was 10 per thousand, and th« population was 43 millions, the an. mini natural increase of population was 430,000. Figures issued by the Board of Trade in 1925 showed that the number of people who left the United Kingdom in 1923 exceeded the number of those who arrived by 198,678, as against 106,070 in 1922, and 303,685 in 1913. Roughly speaking, the nett loss of population bv emigration in pre-war days was 300,000, and since the war this had been reduced to 100.000 per annum. The nett increase of the British population before the war was therefore about 100,000 per annum, and it was now about 300,000 yearly. Great Britain had therefore two problems to face; to find employment for her present army of over a million unemployed, and then to find employment or some other outlet annually for about 300,000 additional persons. WOULD USE BRITISH GOODS The settlement of a man and wife and three children in New Zealand would, an the 1924 New Zealand figures, result in £75 16s 3d worth of British goods being purchased by tho family. In Australia tho same sized family would buy £52 5s worth from Great Britain. From the point of view of encouragement to the British export trade the migration of British people to the self-governing Dominions 1 was the most satisfactory and permanent way of relieving unemployment by reviving trade. The average citizen of Australia, Canada, or New Zealand was a more prosperous individual than the average citizen of Great Britain. He was asked by his own Government and by the Government of Great Britain to share that prosperity with emigrants from Great Britain. He was told that as his country was under-populat-ed the influx of new corners would increase the general wealth, and that he would not be forced to decrease his own standard of living. The intelligent New Zealander asked what these new comers were going to do, and was told that they were to bo settled upon the land or to be employed in new developmental work which would facilitate land settlement. The one question that concerned him was that of markets for their produce. FOUR YEARS’ ARRIVALS New Zealand had during the last four years absorbed 65.000 immigrants, all from the United Kingdom. Of the New Zealand European population 98 V<?r cent, was British or of British extraction. Restrictions placed upon alien immigration guaranteed the future purity of tho race. If protection wer© given to New Zealand industries they could with ease take many thousands of emigrants from England, and find ample work for them in the manufacturing industries. But New Zealand could not take migrants and goods.