RETURN OF MR KEIR HARDIE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13110, 8 May 1908, Page 2

RETURN OF MR KEIR HARDIE.

IMPRESSIONS OF HIS TOUR

EULOGY OF NEW -ZEALAND.

(KKOM OtJK OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, March 27

'My advice to an Englishman who wanted to emigrate to a British colony would be to go to Xevv Zealand. The general standard of comfort is perhaps higher there than anywhere else." Thus spake Mr Keir Hardie, M.P., ■who was interviewed at Plymouth on Tuesday, immediately on arrival of the Aberdeen liner Moravian. He said he had been restored in health as the result of his travels, but that he still felt some of the effects of the motor car accident which happened to him in Now Zealand, -when ho was hurled over an embankment.

Mr Kcir Hardie said that iNew Zealand was tho nearest approach to the ideal State that he had seen during Ins wanderings.Everywhere in the Dominion there was an air of prosperity, largely duo to tho Socialistic legislation of the New Zealand Government.

"i iound every encouragement for the future of ESocialism in most of the colonies.,' , ha said, dealing -with the topic which is, pea-haps, nearest his heart. "In Australia and New Zealand ius doctrines have ceasod to be tho t/Ogey which they ouco were. In iaci. the Labour party is socialistic, and much of tho has been earned out on these lines-? Souin Australia, as well as Now Zea--1...1.V., ceoii-.i to lveir Hardie <% very excellent iield lor vie exiiignanc— luiyoly duo u> Uio labour laws, and he nu-iuioiiud as siyuiucunt the iact that the manufacturers wiio cried out so loudly against tnem when- they ware proposeu, wero now among their struiigesc supporters, "lhe MiuidUjr ior Law>ur tola mc, by the way, tiiat ho liau an opening just now tor a thousond men tor road building. Eight hours a- day and a shilling an hour, lou Lave only to compare- that witn ulnit i saw in boutii Alrica to know waicii is ttio better placo ior au Eng-

lisiiuiau. to"" go to." Mr jjuu-uuo lent Canada with tihe wnpr«:«Bioii tiKic tor tiio tmno tliia l>oiuiiuo.il vvao over-pop iiiia ceil, ajitl Diiat a gjod deal or digress prcvaUed there couooyueii: upon unoanpioyaneut. "Canada.- he queried. "Ao. 1 cartaiu-ly sLu&uld 'Hjoc recamnienid Canada a-t present. i\> is a couuitry oi wouderiul resources, biit my own impiession is that they aro attempting to develop them too' naipudiy. 'I've boom has expended itself. 1 mad bceu hearing all the way across the Doiiiiniioii of tne numiiber of unemployed, and at Calgjary I found sixty m<m engaged in road-makiog! 1 stopped and hud a talk with them, ana 1 found tiliat, while there were quite a lot oi : engineers, compositors, and earpentei-H among tkom, onily sax were unskilled labourers. Tlie best advice to a skilled workman who thinks of going to Canada —unleas he has a ready-found jab—is 'Don't 1' " lloferring to South Ainoa, Mr Keir Hardie expressed hiimseflf thus: —"1 Baw giangs of able-bodied men in Capetown working on a sort of relief works; they were aiia'king roads ait 3s 6d a day, which is a/bc-ut what Is would be at Home. And there is much the same thine in Johannesburg. There is generally an air of depression throughout South Africa, and liiniberley is simply a V«dley of Desolation. It is all caused by over-speculation, dv« Tnotrtly to the w*ar. There has been a lot of building, land values wore inflated, and tho consequence is that property ispracticaJly unsaleable. However, tho cloud has a silver lining, and tlicro ie a rery -widespread feeling of reliof thav tht> l>utoh. ar« coming into pow<?r, not only in the new ooloaies. but also at tho Caipe. Aβ to the mines, there can "bo no .possible doubt that there is an abumdant supply of native labour, not only for .present requirements, but for any conceivable future developments. At the samotmn© it is only fair to tho mine owners to say that tho Chinaman is a more desirable workman. He is more intelligent, he can be depended upon for years of continuous service, whereas the Kaffir will only work for six, or at most, twelve months, and then ho wants to go and invest his savings in a new wifo.

"The beet opinions I could gather in South Africa wero to the effect that the depression will remain for at least this year, when perhaps another boom will come. Ono groat difficulty in the way of stable prosperity in'the Iransvaal—and it affects Boers and British alike—is that there is so much of tho speculative clement. A considerable number of farmers have got big price* for their !ajid, and tho others seem to be living in the same expectation. Of course that naturally leads to slovenly farming. "When a mnn hopes to sell his farm at mining prices he is not very keen about his crops. However, there may be a big; development on the Rand if the now law goos through, which provides that if a claim is not worked in mx monfrha it should bo either sold or fall to tho Government. Then the Government would cause th© claim to bo j worked, and would receive 60 per cent, of tho Drofits. The result will probably bo that tho Government will! work many of them, because tho companies will find great difficulty in raising tho necessary capital in the present state of • the money market. Personally. I do not see Khy the Government itself should not' work the mines—if it had not given up it's original rights in them there would have been no war. The New Zealand Government works two coal mines directly, and does very well out of them, besides maintaining a standard price for coal, which is very imtHJrtant." "