EMPIRE MIGRATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 424, 4 August 1928, Page 9

EMPIRE MIGRATION

HAS ACT BROKEN DOWN? PERTURBATION EXPRESSED MR. AIYIERY’S EXPLANATION (United P.A. —By Telegraph Copyright) fAustralian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) LONDON, Thursday. In the House of Commons Sir John Marriott, Conservative member for York, speaking on migration, expressed his perturbation at the breakdown of the Empire Settlement Act. There was urgent need for a more rapid adjustment of the population between Britain and the Dominions. Colonel McDonnell, Conservative member for Dartford: We should not bft so mealy-mouthed. A little friendly criticism within the family would help us to get along faster. The Secretary of State for the Dominions, Mr. L. S. Amery, denied that the Act had broken down. Apart from the war, there would have been a decline in emigration. In the past six years 277,000 emigrants had gone overseas under the Act. The average cost to the British Government was £ls. He wished the number had been greater. He believed it was a good investment. TO WIDEN SCOPE As a result of reports by the Overseas Settlement Committee and the Industrial Transference Board the Government was proposing substantially to increase the scope of training for overseas settlement by a larger contribution than paying half the cost. It hoped also to encourage the voluntary emigration societies and municipalities, and to co-operate in training youths. It hoped that in this way 2,500 boys, 7,000 single men, 2,500 families, and 2,000 single women a year would be trained on lines ensuring their acceptance by the Dominions.

In order to extend migration they must give emigrants more than the prospect of working as farm labourers. A representative of his department was going to the Dominions, and he would be instructed to see what arrangements could be made to make advances to men to enable them to become settlers on their own account. They were trying to create the opportunity for former industrial workers who lacked agricultural qualifications to go overseas and become successful settlers.