"WHITE NEW ZEALAND"

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 5, 6 July 1917, Page 7

"WHITE NEW ZEALAND"

VIEWS OF LABOUR CONGRESS.

The Labour Congress concluded yesterday. ' > The business in the afternoon was consideration of the coloured labour problem. The following motion was adopted: "This conference recognises the coloured man's inalienable right to live and, consequently to work. It raises no barrier of race or nationality, and fully recognises that in whatever country tho workingclass struggle- for freedom is the sajne. Accordingly this conference recommends to the various unions that the simest way to prevent coloured labouxers now in tho country from being U6ed to reduce the white worker's standard 'of living is to organise them into the unions of the industries in which they are engaged. "This conference further urges that it should bo legally enacted that a),l coloured workers be paid the standard wag© ruling- in the industry,. and. that heavy penalties be provided,for employers paying Joss thaai such, standard. "That indentured coloured and whito .labour f-rom. any country" whatever be prohibited by statutory, law, and further, that any influx of uniiidentured coloured labourers be similarly prohibited. "That conference urge tho New Zealand Government to protest to the Imperial Government against the _ system _of indentured labour from India- that is being operated in Fiji."