GOVERNMENT IMMIGRANTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 95, 19 October 1906, Page 5

GOVERNMENT IMMIGRANTS.

-ARE THEY DELUDED? TRADES COUNCILS SAY "YES." The letter sent to the Manchester Guardian by executive officers of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council will doubtless revive a controversy that raged a few months ago about the literature disseminated through Great Britain by the New Zealand Government. Many critics contended that the rosy statements promulgated by the authorities here were likely to mislead intending immigrants. The idea, of th© southern council was, manifestly, to give Britons a proper understanding of the difficulties which they might have to overcome. The full text- of the warning communication appears in another portion of this journal. " Acfcording to my idea, the position is accentuated here in Wellington. Take rent, for instance," remarked Mr. W- H. Westbrooke, secretary of the local Trades and Labour Council, to a Post reporter this_ morning. "We havo men frequently calling hero, men who, have landed with only a little money, unable to find employment. On© great fault that w© have to find with the Government is in regard to the representations made in Great Britain about the price of land and rents in New Zealand. The Wellington Council would havo taken action on lines similar to those taken by tho Canterbury body, but referred the matter to the colonial executive at Auckland. There was a man hero not fivo minutes ago, a sort of general hand, a handy man, his experience including 6ervice a 6 s'toreman in a packing business and in a cordial factory. Ho was offered £1 per week by a Wellington firm. He could not understand that he would have any difficulty in finding employment at £2 or £3 per week when ho arrived in New Zealand. Who was it that led him to believe he would have no difficulty?" "What about unskilled labour?" the reporter queried. "I think we have to admit that there is an opening for a considerable number of such men as navvies, and 60 on," replied Mr. Westbrooke. • " As far as I can see, the principle of the Canterbury statement applies to the whole of the colony," said JMr. W. T. Young, another labour leader. "There is any amount of artisans in New Zealand to meet all requirements. I contend; that if the Government is going to continue importing men, it should guar- j antee them twelve months' work at £3 per week." Mr. A. H. Cooper, pre'vient of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council, stated that ho could endorse everything that had been said by the Canterbury Council. It was the unanimous feeling of the council here that those statements were correct. Tho Wellington Council included ssven or eight delegates who [ had arrived from the Old Country during | tlio past six or seven years, and in tho discussions about this immigration question they had expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the various reports issued in Gveat Britain, presumably by ihe New Zealand Government authorities, about tho prospects in New Zealand for immigrants. So far as he could understand it, tho whole policy was wrong. The class of men' that the Government was principally bringing out comprised artisans. In the butchery line alone sufficient men had Tecently come out to do half the butchering required for Wellington city. Some that had come here had been out of work for five or six months, and had rehrrned to Great Britain. "Some of the immigrants," he added, "who arrived here under the Government policy have come t» me to borrow shillings for beds and food. A number of the 11 navvies imported havo absolutely refused to work on the NoTth Island Main Trunk Railway on the conditions offered. Several that I know are now working in Wellington and the suburbs, on municipal undertakings, under conditions far superior to those offered them on their arrival by the Labour Department. Out idea, of the Government policy was that the authorities were going to bring out bonafide settlers with a. certain amount of capital to develop tho agricultural and pastoTal resources of the colony. It appears that the bulk of the workers are thrown into competition with local tradesmen. There is n<s scope for them. Tpke tho baking trade. During the timo that I was secretary of the union, from January to June, between 4P and 50 men from the Old Country were on the union's books as applicants for employment. The number of persons employed in the poking of bread in Wellington is only 60, showing clearly that men have been brought out under false pretences." Air. Cooper then gavp instances of immigrants who have aTrived with £200 or £300, intending to settle on the land, and had been bitterly disappointed.