“TOO MUCH WORK.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2404, 20 January 1909, Page 3

“TOO MUCH WORK.”

“TOO MUCH EMIGRATION.”

NEW EDITIONS OF OLD STORIES

“Britons are coming in; New Zealanders iare going out. Too little work, too much immigration.” Such was a trades union secretary’s brief summary of the labor .prospects to an “Evening Post” reporter the other day. “Every union office in Wellington,” ho declared, “is full of unemployed members. One would imagine that it was the stress of winter, and without exaggeration there are as many men out of work now as might he expected in tlie distressing mouths of June land July. One does not have to seek far to find tlie roason for tlie glut in the labor market. We say that the New Zealand immigration policy and the tactics adopted by the Immigration Leagues and the High Commissioner’s Department in London are, in a great measure, responsible for the influx of unskilled and unwanted laborers. We say that the country, perhaps on account of the tightness of money and similar economic reasons, is not progressing fast enough- to absorb large numbers of immigrants just now. The consequence is that half a dozen men nre looking for one man’s job.” THE GENERAL LABORER. Mr M. J. Reardon, secretary of the General Laborers’ Union, remarked that the cessation of road-formation works by various syndicates had helped to swell the ranks of the unemployed. The members of the Wellington anion bad decreased by three hundred lately, and most of the absentees had gone to -Sydney. Contrary to the ordinary state of affairs the steerage compartments were more crowded in the outbound vessels than in the incoming ones. It was difficult to estimate the number of idle “willing 'workers,” hut if he put an advertisement in the “'Post” for one general laborer, ho would be sure to get fifty applications the same evening. Not long ago he put a shilling advertisement in tiho' “Post” and by 8 o’clock that evening the applications totalled between fifty and a hundred. THE IMMIGRANT “LET IN.” Some two hundred at a time the direct steamers are bringing from Great Britain to New Zealand, but only a minor -.pro-portion of these “new chums” come as Assisted immigrants. The great majority pay their way fully. A couple of recent arrivals, conversing with a representative of the “Post”, said that they considered they had been “let in.” They were given to understand by clerks behind the counter in the High Commissioner’s office that- they could not possibly be long out of work of one kind or another when they reached New Zealand.

It is difficult to gather definitely from the immigrants whether their very -glowing impressions of the prospects here are gathered from advertisements or pamphlets, issued by the Government, or from tlie illustrated articles and boomings run by certain companies. Some of them are deluded, somehow, and find the reality painfully different from the picture. “One report I saw had pictures of beautiful mountains and a river—l think it was the Avon,” said one of the Britons. He called at- the Fede-ral-Houlde-r-Sllire line’s office at Liverpool during October, and was told that a/ll the steerage accommodation for New Zealand was booked up to 9th January. He believed that numbers of the men, who were making for New Zealand, were -persons who had returned. home from Canada, which had failed to come up to tlie expectations which they had based on the “puffs” of Canadian agents. ROOM IN THE COUNTRY. “Generally speaking,” said un officer of the Labor Department, “there is a dearth of employment in the cities, especially for unskilled labor and men connected with the building trades, such as carpenters -and painters, but outside, in the country districts, the stress is not felt to any great extent. Harvesters were wanted in' Canterbury and Otago, and in parts of the North Island. Fruitpicking was available in the Nelson and Hastings districts.” THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT’S POLICY. Ever since November, the officer resumed, the numbers of immigrants had shown a decrease. Sir Joseph Ward hnd cabled to London, issuing instructions that the granting of assisted passages was to be restricted to farm workers and domestic servants. Every month the Labor Department sent five hundred copies of the Labor Journal to the High Commissioner, and these hooks fairly showed the conditions of the labor market here; no doubt the Commissioner would act upon that information. The department had no trouble in placing «ail-L the assisted immigrants, because they were prepared to go wherever they were wanted. If (local men could be induced to similarly move outwards it would be better for them. LANDED WITH 2s. While the “Post”- reporter was in the departmental office an enquiry came for advice about a newly-landed immigrant. iHe paid his own passage, j but this operation took almost his last shilling. He 'landed with a florin. The department offered him work, but he had no assets to secure even a .pair of 'blankets for himself. It is said. that this ty-pe of “new chum” is not very rare. It is freely admitted by the union secretaries that the officers of the Labor Department do their best to discover vacancies for the unemployed and help the a-pplieants as far as’possible. The complainants say that the -fault lies elsewhere, and they contend that tlie money spent in London on assisted .passages would be (better expended in New Zealand in helping fresh-comers to find berths. They maintain that quite sufficient people will come here without a bonus from the Government. “The system is topsy-turvy,” sums up the critic’s arguments. ,