A NEWLY-LANDED AMERICAN.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 460, 19 March 1909, Page 6

A NEWLY-LANDED AMERICAN.

SEES US IN COULEUR-DE-ROSE. tBI TELEGIUrn—SrZCIAL' COItRXSrOHDINT.I Auckland, March 18. The Rev. Dr. G. A. Gates, prosident of the Pomona College, Claromont,. South California, who is visiting Auckland, has made some •interesting comments upon Now Zealand life and conditions to an interviewer. "1 have watched-your-streets'particularly just.after 5 o'clock," he said, "and it was almost astonishing to see -no dmnken men about. It was astonishing also to see no dowdy women or girls. There were no pinched faces, and no strained and anxious" looks. The shop-girls and factory-girls, well dressed,, bright, and happy 'looking, behave with a proper dignity." They all- seem to be smiling. I could imagine all had : done a good day's work, and woro finished with it,- and that they had reasonable hours and healthy ivorkrooms. To mo this was a grand thing. These girls have yet to mother boys and girls, and if you want a strong and vigorous joung nation you must have tho women workers treated as they seem to bo treated in Now Zealand. We, in America; have cauEo' for bitter regrets on this score. , "Then, I understand that there is no jhild-labour hero. What would I not givo if wo could have the same law in America, where girls work 12 hours a' day in tho cotton mills? I havo found no real slum areas, as we understand slums in our big c'ities, and I saw no millionaire residences. Tho people seem to be prosperous, and I am obliged to confess that tho 'wild and reckless' legislative experiments of Now Zealand, that I heard about, seem to me to be about tho sanest thing in national policy that I have dropped across. I have been told that capital is being driven out of the country, and yet I cannot find any general opinion against tho basis of the legislation of this Dominion. Nor can I find any concrete instances of capital being driven out by labour laws. On the contrary, I learn that capital is being invested in larger factories and warehouses, and in improved machinery plants."