IMPERIAL PARTNERSHIPS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 209, 28 April 1932, Page 4

IMPERIAL PARTNERSHIPS

• j A leading London newspaper, in a special article on the development of the Empire's vast resources in uncultivated or j only partially cultivated land by the use of Great Britain's unexploited capital and man-power proposes a scheme Avhich, on anything but a comparatively small scale, is unknown to New Zealand and almost unknown to Australia. Briefly, the suggestion is that Imperial chartered companies with large capital should be formed to acquire land in the Dominions and hy the systematic settlement of British people bring such land into full production. There is really nothing new about the proposal. The Indian Empire, and the greater part of British South Africa were originally won and developed for the Empire by chartered companies, and the rapid settlement and development of the Canadian West, now perhaps that Dominion's richest provinces, was the direct result of the work of the great Canadian Pacific Railway Company. In all past schemes, however, there have been, from the point of view of a democratic country like New Zealand, objectionable features. This is probably the chief reason why so far such proposals of the kind as have been made have been frowned upon. There is, however, no real reason why some such system as that proposed by the London newspaper should not be developed, to the joint profit of the Britsh capitalist, the settler and the dominion concerned. Until recently it has probably been impossible to interest the British investor on a large scale in any proposal which did not involve the exploitation, in its undesirable sense, of the "colony" concerned and also, probably, of the settler. To-day, however, there is at Homd a broader conception of the meaning of the Empire and of its value to Britain no less than to its other component states, and it is probable that a partnership scheme on a large scale such as that suggested would be strongly supported by both investors and prospective settlers. From the Dominion point of view, there can be no doubt that a properly organised and adequately fxnanced system of land settlement on a large scale would be of immense value, provided it was undertaken in the true partnership spirit. This country, for instance, is still a long way from the stage at which it can hope itself to provide all the capital needed for developmental purposes. In the past, look'ing with more or less justifiable suspicion on the offers of private overseas investors it has followed a policy under which the State has borrowed the necessary money and carried out the work. To-day it is possible to look back and see the results, and few indeed would be rash enough to claim that they had justified the system"; that adequate value has been obtained for the money spent and the liabilities assumed. It is, in fact, largely the deadweight load of the debt incurred for ^developmental" works that- is crippling the country. Adequately financed chartered companies, on the other hand, which would acquire large areas of* land, train and establish British settlers, direct production along scientific lines (having regard to such things as local conditions of soil and climate, mqrkets, etc.) and foster a spirit of tnading within the Empire, could be of immense Imperial value. And they could be adequately controlled, provided their charters were soundly drawn. Among the benefits which .the system could reasonably be expected to confer would be new capital without inc'reased public indebtedness ; additional population of a most desirable type without risk of disturbance of the labour market, a'nd increased production for export. These three are admittedly the Dominion's greatest present needs. The London suggestion seems to offer a possible method of meeting these needs and an effort should therefore be made by the Dominion to Tollow it up i with a vieW to discovering whether it is not possible to give it, I or something like it, practical effect. " ' :