LABOUR IN NEW ZEALAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 94, 18 October 1906, Page 7

LABOUR IN NEW ZEALAND.

MARKET SAID TO BE OVERSTOCKED. A WARNINCi TO BRITONS. [FUESB ASSOCIATION. I (Received, October 18, 9.10 a.m.) ■LONDON, 17th October. The president and secretary of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council, in a letter to the Manchester Guardian, I warn Englishmen against going to New Zealand. The writer points ont that the labour market is overstocked, and" that a considerable number of artisans and labourera are idle, chiefly owing to the inrush of British and Australia^ immigrants. Mr. J. Mackay, chief clerk of tho Labour Department, was seen by a Post representative to-day regarding the above message. The experience of the Labour Department, he said, is this-— that competent navvies, bushmfn, Toadmokers, milkers, and general fawn hands are exceedingly difficult to get in the colony. As a. matter of fact, the Government, in order to get men. for the North Island Trunk Railway works, is offering special concessions to men from other parts of the colony. Ac an illustration of the state of things .experienced by the department, Mr. Maojcay stated that the steamer Suffolk landed this inprning soma carpenters from England, and there were four or five Employers at the department's office seeking to engage them, Any competent carpenter, he added, can get work. "I have been asked for carpenters for various places, and could not get them. The Public Works Department wanted carpenters at Nelson, to go on the railway works, and they could nob be got. A map sent from Crisr borne for a, dozen carpenters, and we could only get a few to go. It follows as a natural consequence that when carpenters are busy other branches of the building trade must at least be fairly good. Then, again, painters we-io wanted at Feilding, six months' work guaranteed, wages at union rates, and I could only get two or three. Cabinetmakers and upholsterers are at a premium." Mr. Mackay concluded by remarking that, of course, he was only giving the experience of the department. "There may," he remarked, "be ever so many men here wanting work, but they don't come here," and he quoted from the Labour Journal pf last month, as already reported, to bear out what he had said. In regard to Wellington, the report, summarised, said' that business was satis, factory, manufacturers in all lines were kept busy, building trades ive*re very active, engineering showed an improvenwnt;, factory tailoring was reported as being exceptionally good, and co on in regard to other traces.