The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1921. ASSISTED EMIGRATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1921. ASSISTED EMIGRATION.

The twofold object of any sound Imperial emigration scheme should be that of finding a suit-, able outlet for surplus population and the utilisation of the emigrants in the development of the Dominions so as to make the Empire as nearly as possible self-con-tained as regards supplies. This implies the necessity for careful selection in order that the requirements of the Dominions may be met. some needing different classes of workers to others. The subject is one that properly comes within the scope of the work which is engaging the attention of the Premiers’ Conference, and the report of the Colonial Office Emigration Commission, which was recently submitted to the conference, gave a fitting opportunity for discussing a problem that is of much interest, and requires most careful consideration. The main recommendation of the Commission dealt with the question of the transfer to the Dominions of ex-service men and their dependents with the special object of promoting land settlement. The British Government appears to be prepared to defray two-thirds of the passage money for adults and the whole of that for children, and foi this purpose will make an annual grant of a million sterling, besides providing a similar sum to be applied to land settlement, the maximum grant being £3OO to each settler, payable through the overseas GovI ernments, which will be respon- ! sible for recommending the advances and collecting the repayments. The principle governing this scheme is certainly to be commended, but the details need revision if success is to be achieved. Manifestly so small an advance as £3OO would be insufficient to be of real help to any emigrant taking up land unless he was prepared to devote some years to working for others for the greater part of each year, and this aspect was rightly stressed by the’ Australian Premier. If the British Government is in earnest over the matter, it should consider the amount it has cost the Imperial authorities and ' the Dominions to. repatriate their

ex-service men, and in the light' of that great expenditure recast the scale of advances. Australia has spent over sixty millions, Canada and New Zealand over half that amount, and Britain probably 120 millions, and the end is not yet. On these figures it is obvious that to limit the advances to British emigrants to a million a year would be quite inadequate, and that unless it is increased three or four-fold it will be of little service in’any direction except that of reducing unemployment in the Motherland. In this connection it will be noted that the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Churchill), when placing the scheme before the Conference, dissociated it from unemployment difficulties, but later expressed the belief that “the increased settlement of the Dominions would reduce unemployment in the Empire by increasing production and consumption, thereby creating prosperity, in which Britain and the Dominions would participate”—a view that may be regarded as more plausible than logical. What the Dominion requires, and is in urgent need of, is capital to open up such land as is now left to be settled, so that if the British Government is, as Mr. Churchill intimated, “eager to co-operate with the Dominion Governments in the promotion of land settlement,” and ensure greater production, it could assist New Zealand best by facilitating the raising of the requisite capital. The Conference set up a representative committee to inquire into the report upon the scheme, and the conclusions arrived at by that committee will be awaited with interest.