The Dominion THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1908. FRIGHTENING AWAY IMMIGRANTS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 269, 6 August 1908, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1908. FRIGHTENING AWAY IMMIGRANTS

The most striking feature of the Canterbury Trades and Labour' Council's " warning to intending immigrants," the text of which wo printed yesterday, is the moderation of its tone. In this respect it is agreeably in contrast to earlier attempts by Now Zealand labour leaders to keep immigrants away from our shores. .During tho last couple of years tho policy of tho Trades and Labour Councils in New Zealand has bccome pretty well known. From an original concern to securo good conditions for the worker, that policy has changed into a desire to bring the whole country under the. heel of .trades-unionism. From being honestly defensive, trades-unionism has become rapaciously aggressive. That the country has recently boon witnessing a mild attack of " unemployment" is beyond dispute, but the recent agitation has been largely froth and talk. Cortainly thero is noither occasion for anxiety, nor any oxcuse for the Canterbury Council's attempt to inflict injury on this country by frightening into staying at homo the immigrants that are required.

It is not to Trades Council leaders that we can look for reliable information upon farm labour, or upon work of any kind. In representing tho farm labour market as an over-saturated spongo, the authors of tho Canterbury letter havo mado a statement which is tho direct opposite of the experience of tho farmers who recently sat in conference in Wellington. Wo need not, howevor, go into the details of tho misleading . account which tho lettor gives of tho conditions of industry in this country. There has ibeen a temporary and a mild congestion of the labour market, which will quickly disappear, and which will bo succeedcd in spring and nummor by tv ml shortage Tho porioda of serious shortage arc in

many instances longer and more acute than the cases of local unemployment. We have said that the tone of tho letter is moderate, but tho methods of the agitator peep through in one quito indefensible reference to the employers of this country, who are represented as " looking apparently with envious eyes to the crowded labour market of Canada," while their hearts long for such magnificent opportunities for sweating. It is time that this 'unjust libel upon New Zealand employers ceased. By shouting about " Capital," and listening to other's violent attacks upon " the Capitalistic system," some of our Labour leaders have hypnotised themselves into the belief that " Capital " is some bloated entity consumed with a ravening hunger for victims. " Capital " is simply the small shopkccpor on Lambton Quay, the small farmer far inland, the city merchant, the master baker—simply an unorganised body of individual human beings with the samo hearts and minds as thoir employees. If tho workers would but remember this simple fact whenever they heard a noisy agitator declaiming against " Capital," it would be much better for overybody. The authors of the letter disclaim any " desire to consorve this country to those who at presont inhabit it," but that really appears to bo the desire of the trades-union leaders. Since this is so, it is hardly worth while arguing with the exclusionists on the economics of the immigration question, especially when they say that Now Zealand, " owing to its limited area compared with other British dominions, can only absorb a comparatively limited number of immigrants. If area is tho test, then' this country, which is about equal in area to Great Britain, has room for some 40,000,000 people. Much as overybody must regret the fact, there must be per.iods of unemployment in every country. This is admitted by all thinking men. Perhaps local Labour, circles will be satisfied with the opinion of so ardent a Labour Socialist as • Mr. Ramsay Macdonald. Speaking in tho Houso of Commons on March 13 last, he said: — Every economist,' evory sociological investigator in the country, with Mr. Charles Booth nt thoir lioad, had laid down that mod-oj-ii industry domandod a surplus of labour to carry on. Ho (Mr. .Macdonald)- wanted to supplement that by another doctrinc, that modern industry riot only required a steady surplusage of labour, but also required now and again a critical period of unemployment. It not only required its 2 per cent, always, but- its 10 per cent, occasionally. This isr merely another way of saying that industry is a fluctuating thing, and it involves tho corollary that if tho labour supply is so kept down as to be inadequate to oven tho minimum demands of industry, industry will suffer and dwindle when tho shortage amounts to a famine in the sqasons when the demand is at its maximum. It is to be hoped that steps will be taken to counteract the injurious effect of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council's attempt to alarm the people who may be contemplating emigration to this country.