“TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1936. MORE ABOUT MIGRANTS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 303, 7 December 1936, Page 4

“TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1936. MORE ABOUT MIGRANTS.

The interim report of the Overseas Settlement Board is singularly uninformative. Everybody knows that “the idea of Empire migration is being, viewed with growing favour in the Dominions,’’ and that “certain Dominion Governments may be prepared to cooperate in schemes for the gradual revival of assisted migration along certain lines in the reasonably near future.” Ihe problem has developed far beyond genera ities. Mr. Savage’s statement that migrants must bring their jobs with them to New Zealand is a ‘ hint that they must fit somewhere into industry. It certainly does not seem io bear the interpretation placed upon it in British official circles that New Zealand expects Britain to should the whole responsibility for land settlement. In fact, no British observer in New Zealand 'in rectnt years has taken away the idea that New Zealand is at all suitable for group settlement or extensive land settlement. The rural population must grow substantially over the years, but just now the Domininn is condemned, by trade agreements with Britain to mark time on primary production. Ihe whole trend of thought is towards the development of secondary industries in the Dominion, and the onyl difficulty is to reconcile the apparently conflicting interests of British and New Zealand manufacturers. Fortunately this can be done, and there is nothing enigmatical in the view expressed by Mr. Nash in London that the extension of secondary industries in New Zealand will promote trade between Britain and the Dominion. That has been the experience of Australia, with its narrow nationalistic outlook, for the growth of population there has been largely industrial, and although the per capita consumption of British goods is- lower than the New Zealand figure, the aggregate is high, and that is what counts with the < British manufacturer. New Zealand may give the most generous preferences to British goods compared with Australia, but Australia is placed on exactly the same fooling as New Zealand in regard to the admission of primary products to Britain. It is not New Zealanders alone who turn to secondary industries. A common-sense view of the problem has been taken by Sir James Steel-Maitland, who recently settled in New Zealand as a permanent representative of British manufacturing interests. In a warning about the danger of unwise migration he declares that diversification of industry is the solution of the population prozlem, and he sees no reason why the Dominion should not prepare a migration scheme for the development of new industries. Mr. Savage’s mirm is obviously running in the same direction. The only question seems to be whether skilled labour can be imported. Sir James Steel-Maitland thinks that there will be no difficulty in the matter.