N. Z. TRUTH

NZ Truth, Issue 1216, 21 March 1929, Page 6

N. Z. TRUTH

The National Paper THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929. Migration and A Mirage ' HESPITE ' the mechanical ingenuity of cartoonists like Heath Robinson and, others, it is impossible to pour the contents of a hydro-electric dam into a domestic hot-water system, with the expectation that it will accommodate all the water. To tho same degree, it is illogical to pour thousands of migrants into a country which is not able to accommodate them. It is desirable that New Zealand should be strengthened by the incursion of industrious people from the Mother Country, but only, under conditions whereby they would be safeguarded from' the bitter disappointment which has* 1 fallen to the lot of not a few migrants m the past.. There are many well-meaning, but illogical people who cry to the heavens that the question of land settlement will. find its- answer m the peopling of second-grade areas with the excess population of England. At a conference under the aegis of the N.Z. Land Settlement and Development League m Wellington a few days ago, the chairman, Mr. A. L, Hunt, drew a ridiculous comparison between the Immigration statistics for 1874 and those of 1928. He said that although the population m the firstmentioned year was only 800,000, no fewer than 32,000 immigrants entered the country, whereas last year the influx was only 3000. . Mr. Hunt seems to have made ho allowance for wide changes m economic circumstances or unemployment difficulties, and thus his argument is akin to a certain famous theorem of Euciid— absurd. It would be equally 'absurd for the Government to e,nter upon an immigration encouragement policy until it was quite sure that there, was sufficient land or labor available for the absorption of newcomers.