FLOW OF EMIGRANTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1919, Page 6

FLOW OF EMIGRANTS.

British Ex-service men.

WEST AUSTRALIA'S OFFER. WORK FOR. 12,000 AVAILABLE. Some aspects of the Imperial Government's plans for the encouragement of settlement within the Empire were discussed by Mr T. E. Sedgwick in an interview in Wellington. Mr .Sedgwick said.he had come to New Zeuh.nd to ascertain how many immigrants tlie Dominion can absorb from the great stream of able-bodied men which is likely to be flowing shortly from the United Kingdom. New Zealand had lost not only the IG,OOO men killed in the war, but also the immigrants which she would have gained in the ordinary course had immigration not been suspended by the war.

.If New Zealand did not take the men that the British Government was prepared to aend out, other Dominions would do so. From a military point of view it was essential that the population of the country should be increased. Like Germany, other nations might cast covetous eyes on the British countries in the South Seas, but if the waste lands -were filled with a thriving, industrious race, ever ready to protect their heritage, a foreign Power might not be anxious, to attempt anything in the way of aggression. 'We want the oversea Dominions tq remain British," said Mr Sedgwick, "and the one way that can be ensured is by populating them with British stock. The war has shown the versatility of the British breed, jand there is no reason why men who have followed divers occupations at Home should not make good settlers in new lands such as New Zealand." Mr Sedgwick said he fully Tecognised that New Zealand must first attend to the repatriation of all its returning soldiers, awl that immigrants should not be attracted from Britain until it was assured work would be found for them. The West Australian Government, he add«d, was going to accept from Britain 12,000 ex-service men who would be put on Government work at West Australian rates of pay until they became absorbed in the community. "I cannot see any reason against immigration, except ignorance," Mr Sedgwick went on. "It was regrettable that more attention had not been paid to the question in the past, for the United States had attracted thousands of people who might have come to New Zealand. There were 10,000,000 people in the United States, the parents of every one of whom were both British. ''lt makes one boil to think what grand opportunities have been 'lost of inducing such people to go to countries like New Zealand," remarked Mr Sedgwick. "The policy of emigration from Britain to; British Dominions has been one of masterly inactivity and supreme disregard.

Dealing with industrial development, Mr Sedgwick maintained that it wo* economically unsound to export food,to the UnitedlCingjlom to feed the workers there who "made up" the Dominion's raw materials for re-export to this countryas finished articles. "Bring.: the; workers here,'' he. said, "and they will make the finished goods and eat the food,'' He did not believe in being afraid of Tiabor Labor should be educated and taught where its lay—that it was necessary to populate the country in order to keep foreigners, out. No Dominion wished to be made, a dumping ground for the surplus labor, of any other country, and to make quite sure that this would not occur, the British Government would not pay the fares of any emigrants until they had been passed as suitable by the representatives of the country to which they proposed to go. In Mr Sedgwick's opinion the best war memorial that could he devised was a policy of assisting British boys to settle on the land in overseas dominions. Boys' training farms should be established on which they could receive a thorough grounding in* the principles of agriculture. Instead of .-ending thousands of pounds away annually towards the support of orplianages, branches of those institutions could very well be established in the backblocks of New Zealand, and these ioys could be brought from Great Britain and receive training which woukffit them for taking up farm work.