The Daily News. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1922. IMMIGRATION EXPENDITURE

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1922. IMMIGRATION EXPENDITURE

The debate in the House on Tuesday, in connection with the Immigration Department’s annual report, was by no means illuminating. The chief features in evi deuce were the Minister’s exposition of the Department’s finances, .he bearing of immigration on the unemployment question, and the details as to how last year’s new population had been absorbed. Those who take the trouble to analyse the Minister’s figures relating to the cost of immigration for the last three years, may be expected to agree with Mr. Wilford that the statement was ingenious. It was more than that, and the official source of inspiration from whence Mr. Nosworthy derived the argument that for 'the years 1918-21 it had really not cost the Government anything for immigration purposes, is one that deserves recognition as a master stroke of genius, even though it may be of the perverted order. According to the argument used, all that the Minister of any department has to do so as to make his accounts bear the strain of large expenditure at some future period, is to obtain, by means of annual | votes by the House, far more than is required. This process, carried on for some years, would naturally place the Department in credit if the unexpended balances each year are to be brought forward and added to—on paper. It is quite possible, under such a system, to wipe out the national debt without having to find any money for the purpose. Of course, the contention is too absurd for consideration, but the Minister went even further than this when he claimed that, if the unexpended appropriations, which are merely authorities for expenditure, were credited with interest, the amount thereof would practically meet the interest on the expenditure for the past year. Such financing eould only be described as juggling with figures for the delectation of simple-minded folk, and it is difficult to conceive that the Minister could argue in this way seriously. No doubt the public bodies who receive allocations from the Public Works fund would be pleased to see this novel method of financing carried out as regards amounts unexpended by them, but that is quite another matter. Annual votes are not payments, but authorities for expenditure. No money is paid out until it is actually used for meeting outlay, and each year’s operations stand by themselves, absorbing only sufficient to defray outgoings—-sometimes more and at others less than the authority. The point on which the Opposition desired information was a direct answer to the question as to whether any, and, if so,, how much loan money had been spent on immigration, and apparently the query still remains unanswered. As a matter of policy, immigration rightly takes its place as being of much importance to the progress and welfare of the Dominion. There is, however, no gainsaying that, in the past, little has been done to organise the I immigration here and in London : on the right lines, and that much ! misleading propaganda has been circulated or allowed to remain imeorreeted. Money spent to further immigration ought to be a satisfactory asset, but whether it is so or not depends on how the work of selection is carried out. It must, be remembered that when immigrants were most needed in the Dominion they were not obtainable, and that now the claims of our returned soldiers and those others living in the Dominion are naturally entitled to priority, so that there is some justification for the criticism that large sums are being spent on immigration. while the money to furnjtfh employment is very restrict-

ed. That is only a passing phase. What really matters is that the immigrants shall be those able ■and willing to work and to adapt themselves to the conditions to be found in New Zealand. The Minister was able to show that, out of 7005 of the newcomers last year, only 2436 were left to “flood the labor market,” yet by even that comparatively small number being added to the list of the unemployed the position naturally became more acute. "We must, however, make the best of the stringent times now being experienced, and the Government should see to it that no immigrant comes to this country under misleading information. New Zealand has no reason to hide the truth, but every reason for preventing, charges of breaches of faith. We need population more than any other country, with the possible exception of Australia., but the immigrants need to be of a kind that, can readily be absorbed, not those who hang around the cities waiting for something to turn up and being unable to turn up anything for themselves. It is rather anomalous that in a country scarcely developed as is New Zealand, that there should be difficulty in placing in employment immigrants and others desirous of securing work. An alteration of this state qf things is surely not beyond the ability of those in authority.