DOMINION'S CREDIT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 116, 23 November 1928, Page 9

DOMINION'S CREDIT

DAMAGING LETTERS

ON THE TRAIL OF UNTRUTHS AN UNPLEASANT DUTY (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 19th October. Letters from discontented settlers in jSfew Zealand and their advocates continue to find spaco in provincial newspapers. In many cases the High Commissioner does not find it worth the troublo to refuto the statoments, but whenever readers of responsible journals havo boon misled he does not hesitate to point out to the newspaper in question the actual facts. Discussing this subject, Sir James Parr said that while it was well that the truth should be known, it was unfortunate that people rather unbalanced jn thoir judgment should write to the pewspapers all through England to ioul their own nest. These writers neod not trouble about migrants. There were no assisted migrants. There were no glowing advertisements. People coming to the High Commissioner's office wero told the sober truth, and they were not encouraged to migrato unless they had capital. "Exaggerations which I see occasionally from New Zealand correspondents," said Sir James, "such as that there are hundreds starving, that nothing whatever is being done for the unemployed, and that there are glowing and untruthful advertisements being spread &11 over England—these are serious mis-statements — indeed, untrnths — ■which do harm to our credit and standing in tho Motherland." PATHETIC STORIES. A letter to which exception may be takon has boeu published in tho "Islo of Thanet Gazette." It is from Mrs. Louise R. Elvey (nee Parker), of 408, Victoria street, Hamilton. In tho course, of her statement, she says: ♦'New Zealand is going through very hard times with its unemployment problems —problems that you men and women know nothing of. They come to this country lured hero by glowing advertisements and so forth, give up all loved ones, and come to a strange land where the average New Zealander resents their'coming. We only had 5000 ■unemployed in our main city of Auckland this winter, and in one case, a returned soldier, the bailiffs entered and stripped the place even to tipping out a meal which the poor mother was cooking for the evening meal and taking the saucepan. "Then probably you have read in •John Bull' how a poor man, well educated, could not find work and crept into the scrub to die, and left behind him a most pathetic letter. And our moneyed people sit tight and do nothing. Much has been written on this subject, and everyone agrees that Australia, is in the same pitiful state as New Zealand is. As a mother, I feel compelled to pen these linos in the hope that if anyone contemplates emigrating to make sure they havo a home and work to come to. I only hope our little country of New Zealand may recover, and that very shortly, for the sake of the working classes." AN OFFICIAL CORRECTION. In reply to this the High Commissioner, has sent the following letter to the editor of the "Isle of Thanet" Gazette": — "I shall be obliged if you will correct some of tho mis-statements about New Zealand which-appear in it letter in your issue of the. 13th October over tho signature of- one Louise R. Elvey, ■writing from Hamilton, New Zealand. "It is quite true that a year or two ago New Zealand passed through a period of commercial depression, due largely to the low prices being paid here for her produce; but this year New Zealand has had an excellent season, and she is one of tho few countries that can boast of a splendid ( credit trade balance. Indeed, the excess of exports over imports amounted to nearly twelve million sterling this year, with the result that to-day New Zealand is perhaps the most prosperous of all the Dominions. "Your correspondent says people are •practically starving' in Now Zealand. This is a complete mis-statement. The latest statistics show that New Zealand Has,the lowest number of unemployed in all the countries of the British Empire, and the greatest individual prosperity. No able-bodied person who is willing to work need starve or does starve in New Zealand. Your correspondent maligns tho country when she writes such ridiculous nonsense. "As for the case of the man who died in the scrub, your correspondent forgets to say that ho ' was » man of fifty years of age, without friends or relatives, in ill-health, who went out to New Zealand entirely of his own volition, and not as an assisted immigrant, and who had employment for two years at least before his death. He was obviously unsuitable for colonial life. "Sometimes, of course, some people emigrate when they rfre quite unfit for a new life; but for one such failure there are twenty people who make good and have nothing but praise for New Zealand. After all, so much depends on tho individual. "Tho statement that there are 'glowing advertisements' here about New Zealand is untrue. Tho plain facts are always given from my office, and people who take the trouble to come here and ask for advice are told the truth, so that they know quite well what they are about when they venture to leave this country for Now Zealand. "It is to be regretted that occasionally in the public Press of England some disgruntled individual from New Zealand rewards the hospitality of that country by making untrue statements reflecting on a loyal and prosperous Dominion. But I have always found that the English newspapers are anxious (as I have no doubt you will bo) to allow tho official representative of New Zealand to put Hie true state of affairs before tho public."