LABOR ON THE WATERFRONT.

Evening Star, Issue 18258, 24 April 1923, Page 3

LABOR ON THE WATERFRONT.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l feel it my duty to correct the impression conveyed' by “ Square Riggci in regard to the Gabor Party's views on immigration. I can honestly assure you that they are neither antagonistic nor aggressive to the immigrants; but wo resent the action of the British Government, acting in conjunction with the New Zealand Government, in subsidising the shipment of largo numbers of British workers to this country regardless of the chronic state ot unemployment to be met with throughout the dominion, while many trade unionists and unskilled laborers are daily seeking employment. This, in my opinion, constitutes a cruel confidence trick on the workers, their wives, and families, and is clearly designed to benefit the employers in this country at the expense of the New Zealand working men and women. Hundreds of deluded British workers are today vainlv seeking employment, and it is not to bo' wondered at that many of tho men arc to be found seeking work on the waterfront, swelling Ike already overcrowded ranks of the imemydoyed, who only obtain work when there is a rush of shipping. As to the good things mentioned by “ Square Rigger,” they are on the waterfront, as in most other occupations, pretty hard to find; and had ho or any other deluded pilgrim been engaged in coalin" the s.s. Waihemo last Friday, between the hours of 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., he would surely have been convinced that that particular pastime was not included in tho “good things.” —I am, etc., Wm. Brown. April 23.