IMMIGRANTS WANTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 711, 10 July 1929, Page 7

IMMIGRANTS WANTED

DEVELOPING SECONDARY INDUSTRIES GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S VIEWS WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Taking the secondary industries as the keynote of his address the Gover-nor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, at the opening of the Wellington Winter Show, suggested that practically the only wav in which to further advance the secondary industries iu New Zealand was by the encouragement of immigration, thereby creating the only market there could be for the present for Dominion products—a home market. “How are the secondary industries going to flourish?’’ asked his Excellency. At present they could not get beyond a certain point until they had a bigger population. That was how it struck him. They must have a sufficiently large home market in which to sell their goods from the secondary industries, and larger production at a reasonably low cost. “What is going to be our population?” asked Sir Charles. At present he was told that owing to necessity there could be no increase in immigration in New Zealand. “I must accept that as being an economic necessity,” he 'continued, “but it does not prevent me from lamenting the fact that there should be any restriction put on the development of the popula-

| tion in this country. It must be re- . membered that the immigrants who ■ come to this country are not the people who take the bread out of our mouths. i “Immigrants, provided they are of the right sort, are going to be au asset to the country. They are going to be producers, and more than that, they are going to be consumers. What 1 they are going to consume are the products of our secondary industries. Double your population and your industries will develop in proportion. “It is a controversial matter, but a j matter well brought forward for discussion is whether, with the necessity | of limiting immigration, we should not j so try to arrange matters that we welcome immigrants so long as they are of the right stamp. By the right ; stamp I mean those who come out prepared to work on the land. We do ! not want them to come into our lim- | ited population and augment the already overcrowded cities. There is ample scope for them in developing the primary products of the country | and working on the land, i “I suggest that if the boys of New ! Zealand will recognise that the way in j which they can best help their couu- ! try is by doing like their fathers and forefathers did. by developing the ; land, then you would hear none of this ' talk about boys leaving school and bei ing unable to take up their life’s work. You would be able to build up a popu- . j lation on the land ten times as big as today, and then there would be a chance for the secondary industries. “The country is being arrested greatly in its development by the fact that we cannot encourage immigration. I think that is a misfortune, and I . should like in the next few years to see these restrictions done away with.”