THE INFLUX OF INDIANS

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 66, 18 March 1919, Page 8

THE INFLUX OF INDIANS

(To the Editor.) I Sir,—l would like to cull tlio attention of the general public, more esprcinl'y the working class, to the large infliiv of cheap Hindu labour. This district, Taumarunui. has scores of them, soma working at the' , brickyard*, others scrub-1 cutting, some working in the boarilinirj houses. Every week new Hindu arrivals pet olf the train here, sometimes a down or more, and on Saturday nights they i arc in gangs in the main street. Jfuwj all this means competition with our own i people. The native can work at rates quite unpayable to a white man. and owing to their low standard of living I can undercut our people in small con- | tracts. Now, with demobilisation goin-jj on and hundreds of our brave boys wanting work, it is quite unfair to allow these people to come to Now Zealand at all. The idea that some have, that nw British subjects they have the ri<rht to come in and take work, simply opens ' the door to Kaffir labour, Chinese from i Hongkong and Singapore, and the teem- l ing millions of India, who are all British ! subjects. There is only our present so-j called "Education" test as a bur. A { child of standard one could easily pass i it and the result is that about mu> | Indian in thirty or no is rejected and | sent back. The education test should! bn a proper one. not a far,-*. It should; be p. test equal to a sixth standard edu- ' ration at least, with poll t.'iN, perhaps, I as well. T'nless this question is taken' in hand in the future There will be a coloured problem in this country, us in the Pacific states of America. I am. etc., AXTMNFJAW.

(To tlio Kci;tor.>

Sir,—Allow mc to endorse the remarks; of "Menace" re tin- Hindu hawkers. I suppose we cannot refuse them a license, but T understand that the City authorities have given the.n preference over the white man to stand at tlie street corners to such an extent that the white man has been practically driven off the stands. When a deputation waited on the Mayor (Mr. Gunson) with a view to enlisting his sympathy and influence in their favour, he replied that the Hindus were British subjects, and as they were physically unfit for hard work something must be done for them, etc. There are plenty of ■white men who are physically unlit for hard work, and I submit that while there is one white man of that description desirous of taking up a fruit stand, or any other kind of work, the patriotism that we have heard so much of durinpr t!ie war should cry out to u= on his behalf. As for the Indians being British subjects, that surely is no reason why we should allow them to compete so" unfairly -with the New Zcalanders. The standard of living is probably as high in this country as any part of the world wbils that of the Hindu is probably the lowest. It is just economically" impossible for white men to compete with them.—l am, etc., ,• W. SCOTT,