IMMIGRATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1921, Page 5

IMMIGRATION.

A RECORD IN ARRIVALS. NOMINATION SYSTEM. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Oct. 1. The report of the Immigration De< partment, presented to the House today, is of more than usual interest. It staffs that early in 1920 the department took a census of the industries with the object of determining the shortage of labor, and it ascertained that the total shortage was 12,937 persons. In view of this fact the department deemed, it advisable to widen the system of nomi 2 nation so as to permit employers and other persons, as well as relatives, to nominate suitable persona for assisted passages to this country. Some employers took advantage of the system. The expansion from restricted to open nomination is considered by the department to have proved an unqualified success. The number of immigrants for the year ended March 31 last for exceeded the total of any other year for the past forty years’. The arrivals from the United Kingdom during the year numbered 14,444, of whom 6832 were males and 7612 females. Of this number 4821 were assisted by the New Zealand Government and 5286 by the British Government. The number assisted by the New Zealand Government included 3670 nominated immigrants. The department claims to have been able to find housing at once for every assisted immigrant and to have offered employment within forty-eight hours of arrival. The report, which does not cover recent months, mentions that 1.500 domestic workers have applied to the High Commissoner for the free passages offered to New Zealand. They get a gratuity of £2 each in addition to the free passage.