PROBLEMS OF MIGRATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 587, 13 February 1929, Page 8

PROBLEMS OF MIGRATION

JUEW and thought-provoking, phases of the British migration ’ problem were presented in a discussion in the House of Commons on Monday, and statements casually" made there demand attention. It was announced that an additional sum of £.366,000 had been allocated for the industrial training and transference of prospective migrants to'the Dominions, Canada being the chosen home for 6,000 now in training. Emigration, as a Conservative member said, must not be regarded as a confession of failure so far as England is concerned, and there is no difficulty in endorsing his dictum. Englishmen have always had the pioneering instinct, and the strong outposts throughout the Empire are sufficient evidence of English ability to accommodate itself to new conditions. The situation that has to he faced now is somewhat different from that which has faced Englishmen in the past. -For obvious economic reasons it is necessary that men who cannot find work in their own country must he provided with it in other parts of the Empire; but while this necessity is admitted, it is essential also that only migrants who have qualities enabling them to win their way in the new lands should be given opportunity to do so. Training may help them, hut there must be the will to succeed, without which training is practically useless. Big moves have been made in Canada, but last year there was one experiment which sounded well enough in theory, yet in practice proved to be a failure. Detachments of men left England for the purpose of helping with the Canadian harvest, but in a very short time many of them, unable to meet the unfamiliar conditions, left for Home. This shows that experiments must be carefully considered before being given a trial. It was mentioned in the House of Commons that there was tragedy in the Dominions being peopled hv foreigners instead of British stock, and that again is a point that must be considered. As the position is at present there are migrants coming into Australia who can never become Australians, and in Canada there is a similar foreign influx. There are certainly the elements of tragedy in this, and British brains should devise some means of checking the progress of an insidious movement. It is British stock that is wanted overseas, but the only stock of value is that which can take its part in the pioneering work which yet remains to be done in the Dominions. New Zealand, at the moment, is not able to give much aid to the migration movement, and the chief problem for the new Government to face is that of meeting whatever unemployment situation arises during the winter. That is part of the mandate given to it by the people at the last election. Land settlement is one of the solutions offered by the Government itself, and no doubt tiie purchase of a pleasant pastoral block at Feilding will he regarded as the first part of the campaign. That won’t help much . all that has been found is a few more farms. Something rmic-h bigger than that will have to he done to make the remedy effective Mw Zealand lias its own problems, and at the moment it seems as if little more than sympathy can go to the Homeland.