Organised Scheme of Migration Urged

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 212, 26 November 1927, Page 11

Organised Scheme of Migration Urged

COUNTRY’S CAPACITY PROPOSALS FOR MR. AMERY (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The necessity for an organised scheme of immigration ?s to be urge d upon the Right Hon. L. S. Amery by the Dominion Settlement Associatoion and at least 30 other Zealand organisations, including manufacturers and other business bodies, religious and social welfare associations, and sports clubs in a document which is to be placed before the Secretary for the Domiinons in Wellington on Monday. It is claimed by the representatives of the bodies concerned that unemployment is’ the result of the absence of proper organisation, and has no practical bearing on the capacity of the country to carry much increased population, and the passing depression is a mere phase of the nation’s life. Only a remarkably small percentage of British 'migrants fails, quickly to adapt themselves to their new environment. *• In reply to the housing shortage question, it is said that this is being overcome in the cities, but in any case it is in the rural areas that migrants should be settled. The capacity of the country to absorb migrants without . sonno provision for their employment is ' limited, but there is no good reason why a properly considered and organised scheme, providing employment and housing, and involving the development of unoccupied lands, should not be evolved. The essentials of any such a scheme would be the careful selection of migrants, the provision of definite housaccommodation egoaplpyineht, the opportunity of acquiring the necessary experience, and eventually becoming owrers of their own homes and farms, and the encouragement of investment of British capital. It is submitted that these conditions can be met by the breaking in of-sec-ond-class lands for close settlement by a number of British development companies working independently as business concerns, but with certain Government guarantees under the Empire Settlement Act, and some modification of the New Zealand land laws, while the country is being “broken in.” In asking for Mr. Amery s consideration of such a scheme, as outlined, the document also mentions the necessity of redistributing the population of the Empire as a factor of defence.