IMMIGRATION PROBLEM

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1033, 25 July 1930, Page 18

IMMIGRATION PROBLEM

EFFECT ON UNEMPLOYMENT MR. HOWARD GIVES FIGURES THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, Thursday. The Influence of immigration on the increasing of unemployment in the Dominion was stressed by Mr, E. J. Howard (Labour —Christchurch South* this afternoon in his speech on the second reading of the Unemployment Bill. During the period 1924-26, when New Zealand was recovering from a bad slump and should have taken warning, he said, 47,88 ti immigrants had been brought into the country. At the same* time 50,000 children left school to work. Therefore, there were altogether 97,886 people to be considered. This immediately brought New Zealand face to face with a serious unemployment problem. Of the immigrants, 27,500 were men who had to get jobs and, in addition, many of the women required work. Of the children leaving school, 25,000, it could be said, were boys and work had to be found for them. At the same time the figures of the Government Statistician showed that employment in the various New Zealand industries had not increased, so that all the time New Zealand was introducing people from the Old Country the industries to which they were used were going back.