MIGRATION PROBLEM

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20730, 14 February 1939, Page 9

MIGRATION PROBLEM

DEPARTMENT WANTED HON. W. E. BARNARD’S OPINION URGENCY EMPHASISED (Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Tuesday A Department of Immigration with a Minister or Parliamentary Undersecretary in charge of it was proposed i by the Speaker of the House of Rep- j resentatives, the Hon. W. E. Barnard, j in an address to the Auckland Rotary j Club yesterday. He again stressed the urgency of increasing the Dominion's population. The experience gained by the Five Million Club through small experiments indicated certain conclusions, lie said. They had learned that immigrants must be assured of employ- ! ment on their arrival. They must be as far as possible young people rather than elder ones, who would add to ! the production or wealth in the country or render some other useful social service. They should come to fill position for i which there - was a shortage of New j Zealanders, and, if foreigners, they j should be of races that were readily assimilable, such as Scandinavians, I Dutch, some Germans and Czechs. j Government planning of an immi- j grution policy was inevitable, said Mr Barnard. At the moment it seemed to him that the types of immigrants needed were domestic workers of all i kinds, nurses, of whom there was a serious shortage, and skilled workers, particularly in the building trades. There was much land of second and third-class quality, particularly in the Auckland Pn v ace, that might be sue- . cessfully work, i by Danish or Dutch i immigrants.