WHARF WORKERS tO THE EDJTON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 100, 24 October 1913, Page 4

WHARF WORKERS tO THE EDJTON.

Sir,— Amongst many sensible advertisements appearing in the Post of the 16th inst. is one which is evidently tho work of a "wharfie," and of the usual type of argument 'expected from this type of useful New Zealander. There might be ten times five hundred unemployed on the water-front of the cifcv if pv -> fancied the " hanging about " methods of those who persist in loafing around the wharves instead of going further/ afield to try their luck. — I am, etc., V. KELLY. 17th October. TO THU JiDITOR. Sir, — For twenty years various Governments, Labour officials, Labour Bureaux, employers' associations, have all had something to say on this important topic, but none have ever endeavoured to place this business on a footing different to the Circumlocution Office in " Little Dorrit " of " How Not to >Do It." Thousands of tho taxpayers' money have been absolutely wasted, homes broken up, lives wrecked, all for what — not that the country should be developed, or does' not need populating, but for the self-evident reason of cheap labour, and to overstock — the curse of every civilised country — the casual labour market. I have visited eveiy job within a radius of five miles of tho G.P.0., and what surprises mo is the number of wharf labourers on these works ;' this is to their credit, and shows a desire to be employed during tho off season at the wharf, but what saddens the most robust is the hundreds of young men, many of them recent arrivals, drifting to tho wharves in Wellington, Auckland^ and Dunedin, when it is hardly possible for the older hands to get a crust. I have spent many years in the back blocks of Now Zealand (250 miles from nowhere in particular), and I can assure you you will never be able to get farm labourers or domestics from England, or other parts, unless conditions are changed radically ; my own father is a veteran of tho Maori warsj and how oft have I listened to the tales of hardships and

suffering in the early days, but here is my point: coarso food, log huts, stables or wretched outbuildings, plus poor wages, will never suit the average immigrant. We want population, but if tradesmen and others are to be induced out here to flood an overstocked casual labour market, then immigration is a curse, and the Government who supports it stands condemned of criminal folly of the worst type.*— l am, etc., INDUSTRIALIST. 17th October.