IMPORTED DISCONTENT

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2535, 23 June 1909, Page 2

IMPORTED DISCONTENT

A WELLINGTON’S BUSINESS MAN’S OPINIONS. Discussing the recent gatherings of crowds, a Wellington business man gave his opinions of the causes leading to local and general discontent. “I can’t help thinking,” he said, “that the most discontented element we now have in the cities of New Zealand is composed of more or Jess recent arrivals. Much has. been done recently to encourage people of every sort to come to New Zealand. The idea of increasing a population that refuses to increase itself is admirable, but it follows that., incompetent people who have arrived in thousands during the past few years, finding that they are unable to fit into billets at large salaries, naturally curse the country, and, being idle, are also mischievous. In Wellington especially, a very large proportion of the people are “new chums.” The self-reliant new chum who expects to be taken by the hand and conducted to the nearest heap of 'gold has been a problem before he became a new chum, and he is going to be our problem in New Zealand. It is apparently harsh to advocate that only those persons whose future is .assured should bo permitted in New Zealand, but it appears to me that the idler who is mentally or physically incapable of becoming busy as soon as he lands in this country is a grave danger to the civil peace of the Dominion.”