LABOUR CONDITIONS IN NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22105, 29 May 1937, Page 20

LABOUR CONDITIONS IN NEW ZEALAND

TO THE EDITOB OF THE PEESS. Sir, —As a globe-trotter, may I, with almost a sense of amusement, acquaint you and the readers of ydur newspaper with my view of the absurdities of workers’ claims in this country. In order to keep the Labour Government in their demands increase by leaps and bounds! Shorter hours, higher pay they have got. even to the danger of crippling industry. ~ . ... Instead of burning the candle at both ends in New Zealand you are cutting off big chunks of candle at both the ends. Soon nothing will be left. "The survival of the fittest is a law of Nature. And can anyone suppose this small Dominion can continue to ‘ wetnurse” her working class, while alongside her is a powerful nation armed to the teeth, overflowing with energetic workers who live on a mere pittance (and yet are in contrast a contented lot) and not in the long run go under? Where the "servant becomes master is an abomination, so the Scriptures say. But there is more to it than that. The resources of this country are limited. The spirit of enterprise is needed to make the most of such. It is urgently needed. Instead of which it Is being crushed. The swing of the pendulum is always from one extreme to the other. Unless your workers realise that as a body of workers they exist, and have only their right sphere in the scheme of things, you are heading for ruin, and maybe slavery as a final state under foreign invasion. There is always that possibility for a nation determined on pulling down instead of building up.—Yours, etc., A PASSER-BY. May 27, 1937.