IMMIGRATION.

Evening Star, Issue 15140, 24 March 1913, Page 3

IMMIGRATION.

TR'ADESAND LABOR COUNCIL'S MANIFESTO. The following is the full text of a manifesto which line just been drawn up by the Otago Trades and Labor Council: No question is of more importance to the workers of New Zealand than the proposal to import labor, and few quesci.tns have occupied so»much prominence recently. The. Otago Trades and Labor Council therefore deem it necessary, in the interests of the- workers, to make a public pronouncement on the proposals to import.labor into New Zealand. The proposals affect every man and woman, and, judging from the utterances of those supporting immigration, the children as well. —Our Past Experience Population has been attracted *.i-or. the Old Land to New Zealand for .some vc.vs. All the time the necessity A hav.ng more population has been emph;>si>?:l. Yet in epite of this alleged necessity a very large proportion of M-e unmigr nts 1.-ve Uen compelled to leave our shores for Australia. And so the net result is that our population gains have been relatively small. The council declares that this country cannot keep its population unless conditions of employment are good and better opportunities are made for landless men to get

access to the land. Our first point is, therefore, that it is a flagrant and unwarrantable waste of public money to assist immigrants to this country, when all experience shows that a large proportion of them must go elsewhere to earn a' liveihood. j —The Australian Experience.— Several of the Australian State Governments have during the past few years carried out a vigorous immigration policy. Thousands of immigrants have been attracted. Many hundreds of these immigrants have been disappointed by' finding conditions and opportunities of employment so different from the glowing pictures of ths immigration agents and the shipping companies. To-day there are hundreds of unemployed in each of those States. Some of that disappointed population must swing back to these shores. Already we have had many inquiries from the Commonwealth as to the state of various trades. So we emphasise the fact that wo must get some of the present unemployed population of 'Australia independently of any immigration policv. Stern necessitv makes a certainty of that. —Tlie Guessers and the Shortage.— The advocates of wholesale immigration have made some startling statements. But in on case are these advocates disinterested. In no case is their position in the industrial army threatened by an inflow of workers seeking situations. But. in all cases additional workers coming to our shores jeopardise the jobs at present held by our own workers. \Vc deem it wise just here to place some of the guesses of the immigration advocates together. The public can then see what they are worth. Mr J. Eman Smith, Secretary for Immigration, estimates the shortage of labor at 5,861 men, 1,864 women and girls, 2,000 domestics, 416 boys; total, 8.141. Mr Sydney .Khkcaldie, head of the big Wellington drapery establishment, said: '' Personally he could oiler to 50 dressmakers, milliners, and tailoresses wages which would range from 30s to 35s per week for competent hands. He believed 1,500 to 1,600 competent dressmakers, milliners, and tailoresses could be absorbed in New Zealand every year." Mr T. P>. Sargood :" " Some 3,000 odd skilled factory women workers are required, and the demand is increasing." Sir Joseph Ward, acording to a cable from London dated March 11. said : " Xew Zealand' could take 10,000 of the surplus women now in Great Britain, and all of them would be certain to find good employment."

The Dunedin Expansion League have also entered the lists as a guesser. Some time ago the league eent out an inquiry ' form, and have now tabulated the results. Those results show that 217 skilled female workers (of whom the clothing and boot factories ask for 131 and " factory hands" are- put down as 85) are supposed to be wanted in Dunedin. There are 131 juvenile workers also wanted. It will be seen that, according to the league's inquiries, the labor shortage is largely confined to women and juvoniles. We 'are confident these figures are grossly exaggerated. Anyhow, wliere are the juveniles and women workers to come from—are they to have no parents or male relatives, and,'if so, where is the work for them? —Why Women and Children?— That brings us to this important point. To meet the demand—and we deny absolutely that the demand exists in anything like the estimate—the immigrants must be women and children. The labor of women and children is cheap—too cheap, even in this country. As we write one bif woollen company has dismissed a number of its male workers and is replacing them with women immigrants. The company is not paying the women anything like 'the same wages as men. The men were paid £2 lbs per week; the women who are replacing them are being paid 355. Hare as elsewhere it is not more workers that are required, but cheaper ones. In his memorandum to the Empire Trade Commission, Mr P. E. Sargood said : Children.—An ever-increasing need in our industries for apprentices to fill the places of their elders, who, through natural and other reasons, leave their trades. The industrial wastage of producing energy is further accentuated by the labor laws of the country and the dictation of the trades' unions. I have urged a recognition of the great danger which is looming ahead of our industries on account of a too rigid adherence to the principle of limitation of apprentices. To us that is an amazing paragraph. The elders only leave their trades through one of two causes—death or a loss of their jobs. And we are afraid that if this country is unwise enough to adopt a wholesale immigration policy for women and children the elders in large proportions will be compelled to leave their trades. But take the next sentence : This industrial wastage of producing energy is further accentuated by the labor laws of the country and the "dictation of trades' unions. I have urged a recognition of the great danger which is looming ahead of, our industries on account of a too ri,«id adherence to the principle of limitation of apprentices. These words are absolutely misleading. Mr Sargood if asked would tell the public that his firm's main difficulty is to get female workers for the clothing and bootmaking k branches of his manufacturing enterprises.

In neither of these is there any limitation of apprentices. It is, therefore, not because of the labor laws or the trades' unions that girls refuse this class of employment. It is because, the conditions are not attractive enough. In the clothing trade it is notorious that a system of driving is growing up, and some, of that driving 'is practised in connection with a "bonus system" which keeps girls working in complete ignorance of the basis on which the bonus is distributed. This eternal cry for cheapness means the undermining of the workers' conditions. There are unemployed men in the, boot trade to-day, despite the fact that 540 less males are employed now than in 1900. But there are 77 more female workers, and, contrary to the very-ready excuse, the enforced idleness of male workers cannot be duo to the lack of female labor. Male labor is diminishing; female and child labor is increasing. Is the ideal of the immigration advocates a system of production in which women and child workers predominate ? The signs point this way. —Wages and Women Workers.— Much is made of alleged high wages and the inducement such wages should be for immigrants. Mr Kirkcaldie talks airily of wages from 50s to 55s per week. Three weeks ago the New Zealand federated clothing manufacturers asked the Arbitration Court to reduce the minimum wage of costume and mantle hands from 25s to £1 per week. The council says deliber-

ately that an organised attempt is being made to undermine our industrial conditions by flooding the labor market with the object of reducing wages. The immigration advocates know that wages can best be lowered by having two workers seeking one job. So it is that they advocate immigration. —The Guarantee of Permanent Employment.— We know the immigration advocates will retort that they guarantee permanent employment. The guarantee is worth nothing to the workers. It is simplicity itself to get round any such guarantee. If 100 or 1,000 women workers came here to-morrow under a guarantee, the employer could next week, when ho has too many workers for his work, say that these workers were not skilled or were not competent according to his method of manufacture. He is the sole judge, and there is not even the suggetsion of a law which attempts to compel him to keep a worker whom he says is incompetent. And if his work gives out, no law attempts to compel him to continue to pay wages to unemployed workers. There are unemployed immigrant workers in Australia today who were guaranteed permanent employment, but there is now no employment for them. —Multiplying an Unsatisfied Demand.— Every attempt at estimating the alleged shortage is based on a fallacy or on insufficient data. Take the clothing trade as an example. The manufacturers say their shortage of labor is some specified number of women workers. We presume their estimate is based on a demand. In some cases it is based on an unsatisfied demand. For example, an order is refused by one factory, and the owner concludes he has refused the order because he could not get, say, 12 workers. That is repeated, each factory owner arrives at the same conclusion, and so the labor shortage is multiplied. Had the order been undertaken by the first manufacturer the others would not have heard of it, and would not, therefore, have, been counting up the good things missed. —Workless Workers.— We have said nothing about the shortage of farm laborers. But the farm laborer of to-day is tlie city laborer of tomorrow. The Wellington wharves are over-supplied with labor. Many cases of individual hardship through unemployment have recently come under our notice." This information was available for the Government investigator (Mr J. W. Collins) a week or two ago, but his instructions restricted his inquiries to certain specified industries. When labor is displaced from one of the trades, however, economic pressure compels it to seek employment in other avenues. Most displace! labor in the trades gravitates to the wharves or to the ranks of the general laborers. Then in turn some of it is forced to the country. It will be remembered that the Arbitration Court refused to make an award governing the conditions of farm laborers, and doubtless this refusal of itself has something to do with the shortage of farm laborers. —Conclusion.— We claim to have given this question every consideration. We do not desire to keep this country a preserve for its present inhabitants; but we see the menace of wholesale immigration to the wageearners who are here, as well as to those who come and do i.ot find work. Above all, we emphasise the serious and dangerous position of unemployed women immigrants. They will be forced to accept, under economic pressure, wages which they would refuse under fair conditions. And we emphasise, too, the practical difficulties of a policy of immigration which seeks to bring only women and children to a strange country. We urge the Government not to continue a policy which must bring about the dislocation of industrial conditions, as well as throw many of our workers out of employment.. It is not an easy matter to supply juvenile labor to one centre, female labor to another, and male labor somewhere else. The basis of our society is the family, and anything which unduly separates family ties must react and bring about much hardship. Above all, wo warn the workers of this threatened menace to them. The employers must gain by flooding the labor market. It is equally certain the workers must lose. Immediate action is necessary to protect the workers' interests, and that has impelled us to offer this protest in the hope that the Government will not be misled into taking a step which must injure the majority of the people. On behalf of the Otago Trades and Labor Council. M. M'Allen, President. I J. T. Patjx, Acting Secretary.