PARADISE LOST !

NZ Truth, Issue 73, 10 November 1906, Page 4

PARADISE LOST !

A MESSAGE TO THE TOILERS

(By Arthur Picard.)

Good evening, Mr Hall-Jones. Just a word with you. By-the-bye, did you say there was work for all m Maoriland ? Yes, and not only you, but thousands of others say the same. Well, allow me to present my respects to you and t 0 the thousands of others, and. tell you that you are all wrong. I know you are all wrong. Positively know you are all wrong, and positively know that m Maoriland THERE ARE THOUSANDS OUT OF EMPLOYMENT

during the winter months. Listen again— thousands ! What's that ? They don't want work, eh ? Oh, that yarn is about, blue mouldy. They want work, and are able and willing to do it, and great numbers of them have families dependent on them, and there are thousands yet to arrive m the country to swell the number. Yes, thousands to arrive. You see this infernal booming business has been overdone, and, of course, there is no place like New Zealand on the map.. Of course, not; The wages are high, but r.so is the; "price of everything, so it just about pans out the same, Tunderstaria 'the booming is to be, shopped. Too late, the mischief is already; done, and thousands are to suffer through it.. Every line I am writing is, a line of truth. The fact of the matter is, I have been watching this matter for months, and the workers will find that their gilded Paradise is ft . thing of the past. I have consulted with hundreds on the matter, and know it to ne only too true that the thing is overdone.

WHO DO I BLAME for it ? Well, if the workers m these isles will not look after their own interests, the blame rests with themselves ; m fact, you will meet toilers who are so,. Mind that they cannot see it, and are mean and cowardly enough to throw off at their fellowworkers, and say every man should he working. Yes, he should be, but every man cannot. Certainly, there is a rush for a ; while, a nd the cocky wants his harvest dragged m before the rains spoil things, and rushes into town with thistles m his whiskers and hayseed m his hair, and shrieks for labor. lie is, like others, really busy for a time, until things settle down as ncr usual. But to say that people are lazy loafers because they are not working is

THE MOST BRUTAL AND STINGING INSULT that could/ be thrown at the workers m this 4and of boom and beer. It is senseless to say such a thing. Certainly, there are always a number of hop-sharks hanging ; around the big centres, who. do little else but absorb joy-juice, but they do not represent the workers. , They. -are- all m tho waiting profession— waiting fc-r someone to shout— but do not represent anything m the work line ; but it is the genuine workers I write of. If a man wants a taste of Bacchus, I believe he is entitled to it, but not to float m it, and when he can't sink any more ask the publican to throw it over him. That is too strong. THE WORKERS PROM THE "DEAR OLD MOTHERLAND" get a rude shock : m a great number of cases when they arrive here, and start' to throw their feet out and look for employment. Truly, distance lends enchantment to the view, and it speaks for itself when we find • ijr-nn-grants suiciding because they can't get woirk, and it is about time we shut up about our Paradise, and warned people around the planet of the true state of things. It is a real cruel shame that great numbers have been misled, and m some cases left good billets to come out to an overcrowded labor market. It is a scandal., and the labor unions ought to combine to warn people of the true state of things, not leave it to one body m the South Island, which, has issued a warning note to the toilers m the Old Dart telling them the true state of things.

I met him m the street. He had crossed from Australia to sample this country, and r.jii one eye absen^, also a wife and family ditto m Victoria. I advised him to go on the soil, but he showed me the bottoms of his boots, and I could see he had, arrived there already ; m fact he had given Matilda a hoist, and reckoned they looked down on a swaggic m this country, worse than* they would a gaol bird m Australia, and he presented his tegards to ,'Moarilandy - and said that Taihape was Siberia No. 2. He had given it a turn and turned it up, and reckoned it; was all mud, beer, and hard graft. He said the 'Stralians get a bad name with a pood many, but I knew tliat, and furthermore I knew that the Australian native is just as good as anything m human shape that stands on two props on the planet to-day. I threatened to shout for him, but he said a snuare meal would go better, and we retired to a : steak, ham bone, and jolly old slippery sausage foundry, and !jb did "full "justice to the good things provided," as the pale reporter with the slender stipend would remark. After he had passed a poultice on to his chest, as he called it, he started to pay his respects to Zealandia, and the waitress ran into the tripe ladder out of ear-shot, as he brought his fist down on the table and made the cups do a polka. "What do you call it ? God's Own Country ? Strike me crimson ; .

IT'S A PITY HE DIDN'T KEEP IT," he said, as we moved alons the King's highway once more. But I have met hundreds who have not done a tap for weeks, and I can bet my

last dollar there is a bad time for the workers m this country. It is the married men who are anchored here with their wives and families who are going to suffer, aye, and who are already suffering. This is a fact, despite all the boom and gush about Maoriland's prosperity. Certainly we are having a run of prosperity, I'm aware of that, but the labor market is over-stocked as it is, and there are thousands more to arrive, led here by this boom business.

I see some mudlark has been tellin<r the papers that the Labor Bureau is sending unskilled workmen on to the Main Trunk line, tradesmen and so on. What else can they do ? They must send them somewhere, but whoever he is he might keep his meat-trap closed, and not spoil his brother worker by whining about their being. i^pompe^ftt.^Tateji thf'^ver^ge:' : MV^yr^fiMl^^^^S^| —but this hairy-eyed mud thumper "is" apparently a dirty > whining crawler, a species of human vermin that infests the. planet, and is absolute j poison to anyone with a principle. A form of maggot that ought to be i trod on at sight. If he was not riwiniiKr to the newspapers he would be runninp: to the boss with a yarn ( about his mates, no doubt. Give aj man with a profession a chance with | a pi ok. shovel and bowyang and he j will throw his bit of clay with a long or short-handled T>anjo, with the best, m due time.- '

Apart from over-stocking the country with surplus /labor with the boom biz., of course ' there is the usual rust-eaten, yellow-hided Chow. He is dome: welly ni, tank you. Yes, rather too nice, I'm afraid, and is eating out the white man at every point.

THE TOILER'S PARADISE they call Zealandia, but apparently it will be the Chow's ;>m fact, it is already. They are not worth their salt to the country, and are only a drain on it, and yet thousands *»f whites m this land stick to, the yellow m preference '. to their own flesh and blood; but of course day of reckoning is coming.' Every pound of fruit you eat is tainted with t<h© life blood of a future . generation, .^as China is preparing to rise and smash the White.- Devils, just as. sure as the sun will rise to-morrow morning. But, of course, you are laughed at for saying that, just the same as when the Boers were arming to break things up m South Africa. Anart from that it is disgusting to think the Chows are m this country handline our white girls and women, and shame on it, even allowed by law to wed them, and cross the yellow with the white. They are advancing by leaps and bounds around Maoriland, and will eventually turn this socalled Paradise into a young HelL Listen to what Dr. William Maloney, the great 'hearted workers' champion, who has travelled m the East, has to say on_.the matter m .-.• his. book; [ 'Flashlights on Japan and . the East." This' is m reference to China and Japan striking a combined blow at the white,:— . ; ;:,:'• $*a;" ■ ; "

"China will rise, the East will rise, because the West has niost arrogantly and insolently; aroused her ; hawked at her with claws and talons fleshed and reddened ; pricked at her with barbed lances of unquestionable wrong ; fixed an alien civilisation on her m spots, like inoculation of, a fbreijEn.-and detested' disorder ; sat : dowii on Vast breadths of her territory with all the assurance of conquerors ; and, at the same time,' lured her, by the occupancy of exeat and not remote territories, sparsely peopled, and only scratched m the way of development ; ; but barred^ against her people— necessarily barred, as we know right well,. ' I, am . stating faots now,", and not opening $ •'. case for China or ''the/ East . v > :

Of course, the West, has played with the East m the past, but the day of hitting back is approaching, and Japan will eventually combine the brown with the yellow, and then look to your guns -! Once .the ; „

GIANT OF THE EAST MOVES properly something will have to go. I believe myself if Japan and China could stand clear of a big European war they could rush m and smash fi combination of Powers, and i believe that will be their aim. Both the yellow and the brown hate the white. Our dear ally ! ' She will stick to Bull just' as long as It pays her to do so.. Thousands m New Zealand are helping the Chows to rise, apart from spoiling their own Paradise. But go on, ' and just . as sure as these lilies are written, the day of unavailing regret is approaching, and so is a day of regret for thousands of willing workers . m Maoriland who are getting : it 'bad enough now, but a 'blacker 'day is m store. I look right ahead and weigh everything fair and square. You are losing the grip on your Paradise every day m the week, but who is to blame ? Yourselves.

I beg to ask great numbers of people on these shores to refrain from asserting . that no, man should be out of work, that there is ' work for all. You are simply ignorant of what you are talking about, but it is useless to reason with great numbers, because ;bheir sleek hides are well looked after, as everybody else ought to tie. When Air Ca'pital says' there is room for thousands more workers m New Zealand, he says so because he wants a great surplus of labor of all sorts, so as to have the wofckers bowing and scraping to him, and accepting cut wages arid working longer hours when not. under the protection of a Union, As things are at present we musthave Capital, but it is senseless to be always ravine; at the man with the capital. It is far better for labor and capital to combine for the general good, as they must work together' under present conditions. When we get State Control everyone will be a capitalist, and everyone will have their fair share of this, world's foods. I believe m the State controlling all for t>he benefit of all. The present unjust system simply manufactures

THIEVES. ROGUES AND HYPOCRITES,

and the weakest of the human family is crushed to the wall. But we want to protect the weakest as well as the strongest., and State Control of all is the only solution I can see for thousands of difficulties that exist at present. The State controls the telegraphs, railways, and even now there are State coal mines. Let the

State control everything for the benefit of everybody, and we need not be chirping about the sweet bye-and-bye, as this earth will be even better than Heaven is supposed to be. After my arrival on the planet I thought I had arrived m Heaven, as all the ladies wanted to take me m their arms and kiss me, and called me a little darling and stroked my long flaxen curls, but I've been to Sunday school since then, and they are not quite so anxious, of course, and as one grows away, from the cradle things are not so glittering as they seemed at first, m fact, I feel quite annoyed at times that I've arrived, but it is too late to enter a protest now, and I'll go on with the game.

Now, Mr Hall-Jones, I wish to tell you that I have a large order of respect for you, especially after the way lately ; but I tell you again that you are wrong . about your estimate of work for all. Every out-o'-work is not a loafer. You told the workers that he was, years ago', but don't keep digging the spur m the same place, as it might cause a big amount of trouble. Listen, again, m case you and great numbers of others (forget. If you will place at my disj posal everything necessary I will undertake to collect hundreds of genuine qut-o-works m this^ island alone, even around a hundred miles or 1 so. I know, because I have> been moving amon» the workers myself for months past, all around the Hawke's Bay tablelands and right along the line, on a matter of business, and' have been brought m touch with hundreds of unemployed, talked with both men and women.

. Another flash or two, and I'll finish. There is a rag here that threatens to "do" things to "Truth." It has a large circulation— among the butchers for covering up the nakedness of the blushinc steak and pale-eyed tripe,. and warns, j^jp one pr two readers that it is the oldest mg* m the' district. Yes, and the worst, I guess. Why, the VWar Cry" can beat it by a length fof news, and even the "Prohibitionist" would give it a go. Are you listening, Misther Freeth ? When "ou can produce, a sheet as good as this one. it will be time to cackle, so climb down. That's a dirty insult of yours to say that no decent man would allow these columns m the family circle. I beg to present von with nw disrespects, and on behalf of myself and "Truth" readers inform you that you are everything but a gentleman for levelling such an insult at :thousands of men and women m these fait isles, whose shoes you are not fit to dust ; so pull off the track. I like a straight goer, but ; when you .start to throw mvd 1 ' at decent local business men arid publish their names m your alleged paper to spoil their business/ it is a bit off, color ; so istow;.your tackle. You .are about as well- liked here as Trepoff was m Russia. -Nufi sed. „ .

In s conclusion let me remark. , that if the workers of Maoriland -will study tli&ir own interests they will keep a keen eye on their Paradise, as 'tis called.. It is a Paradise for some ; but with hundreds of others it is Paradise Lost. Palmerston North, Nov. 4. 1906.