ROOM FOR IMMIGRANTS.

Shannon News, 21 September 1923, Page 4

ROOM FOR IMMIGRANTS.

OVERSEA DELEGATION IMPRESSED. The members of the British Oversea Settlement* Delegation, on their i return to Sydney after touring the northern districts of New South Wales and southern and central Queensland, themselves as being much impressed with the country they had 'seen and the prospect* for immigration. ‘‘T am firmly-convinced that the best class of settlers you can have are those who become primary producers !—those who settle on the land,” said Sir William Windham. “And it is to [that side of the question we are giving all our attention, as these agreements have in view the settlement of ’large numbers on the land.” It was safe to say, Sir William continued, that the surplus population of England to-day was well over 6,000,000. ’They wanted to find employment for A large number, of men who were out employment through no fault of their own, but on account of the conditions following th© war.

; Mr Wignall said that they might have read speeches made in the House of Commons in opposition to migration; but the fact that the Labour Party had elected him to hit on the Overseas Settlement Delegation was proof that they were not opposed to it. “But,” continued Mr Wignall, “we Want to Bee it carried out in a proper way. We don’t want to see people dumped down in a strange land to fend for themselves. We want to know what are’ the prospects and the difficulties that lie in the new world for them. I have been in the backblocks and seen the conditions of the country in its primitive state, and in the process of clearing and producing wealth, which is good information to b© used when we get back. When you come to consider that in this'country 40 per cent or 50 per cent of the population bf a State is centred in one city, you inust realise that you have the same defects in Sydney as we have in London. You have more people than you have houses for, and we are not going to help you by sending more people io be homeless. Outside your city boundaries you have enough land foi all; but give them a chance to live on it. Would it not be better to clear one of the best portions of your country and make is fit for people to come and live on, and, instead of sending pne or two here and there, send them to this land in thousands and give ihem the chance to live the best life God would have them live?"