“Taranaki Central Press” MONDAY, MAY 24, 1937. IMMIGRATION POINTS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 441, 24 May 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” MONDAY, MAY 24, 1937. IMMIGRATION POINTS

The current discussion of the immigration question is not always in touch with realities. The suggestion that the Government should bring boys and girls in their early teens from Great Britain and train them here is a case in point. The Mother Country needs these youngsters quite as much as New Zealand does, because with a declining birth rate the nation is fast becoming one of middle-aged and elderly people. It was pointed out quite recently that while England could possibly spare a few boys she needed every girl she had, because in a very few years she would not have mothers enough to maintain the population. One of the obvious difficulties in carrying out an immigration policy is that the prosperity of the Dominion is very closely bound up with that of the Mother Country. When the Dominion is prosperous and employment is available the Mother Country is also prosperous, trade is brisk and virtually all employables are fully employed. When unemployment is prevalent at Home, on the other hand, there is always the dole, which has unquestionably operated to prevent emigration. It is quite clear that if New Zealand does put an active immigration policy into operation she will have to look outside the British Isles for a fair proportion of the immigrants. She would be quite safe in doing that, because the population will remain predominantly British and experience has shown that Scandinavians, for instance, make excellent colonists. Still another point commonly overlooked is that a steady expansion of population is necessary if prosperity is to be maintained. There is very strong evidence in support of the contention that the slump in the United States which started the world-wide depression was really due to the policy of shutting down on immigration. The argument is too long to be reproduced, but it starts from the assumption that any check to the increase of population automatically checks capital expenditure.