AS OTHERS SEE US

Evening Star, Issue 18278, 18 May 1923, Page 1

AS OTHERS SEE US

NEW ZEALAND “TORY CURSED."

Early this year New Zealand was visited by Air J. S. Collings, tho Queensland Labor organiser, who addressed meetings throughout tho dominion. On his return tho ‘ Daily Standard,’ a Labor newspaper, published an article under the headings; “ Tory Cursed Land,” “ Impressions of Maoriland,” which a New Zealand resident in Brisbane has forwarded to tho ‘New Zealand Times.’

Air Callings, in the course of his interview, is reported to have said that in New Zealand “Alany toilers, with little to make life really worth while, seem afraid to ea.ll their souls their own. * ,

“ . , . I wish my mates of the railway shops of Queensland could know the conditions over there. Tho shops, tho yards, tbo sanitary conveniences are indescribably filthy and degrading. . Alter reading the article the New Zealander, “Rimu,” wrote as follows;

■‘‘As an old New Zealander who has recently visited the dominion I had tho idea from my convictions that the people of the dominion considered themselves a cut above the ordinary Australian. As certain of your own poets and statesmen also have said, your land is ‘God’s own country.’

“(‘Comrade’ Jesse Silver Ceilings, the Queensland Slate Labor organiser, has just returned from a tour in the dominion. hi an interview published in tho ‘ Daily Standard ’ (Labor) newspaper, a copy of which is attached, he reveals a •sad state of affairs. “If his story can be believed _ tho ‘ comrades ’ in Alaoriland arc a shockingly downtrodden and servile lot.

“ The gospel sounded by St. Jesse on Ids silver trumpet must indeed have oecn a message of hope and deliverance to them. The picture he draws of the glistening eyes of the Civil Servants and the groans of the railway employees In their uncongenial and insanitary conditions is indeed' pathetic, and no doubt fired the eloquence and imagination of the apostle of emancipation, “ One’s heart bleeds to think of theinjustice and cruelty of the ‘masters.’ Bt. Jesse, however', does not explain if ho means the employers or the union secretaries, whose consent must bo sought that the poor worker may call his soul his own.

“Xo wonder New Zealand workers subjected to the above conditions 1 would gladly suffer martyrdom’ to possess what their Australian comrades so (carelessly

enjoy. THE OTHER SIDE. “ Did Comrade Jesse toil New Zealand audiences the following facts : “ At the last census there were 33,34# unemployed in the Slate of Queensland? “For tho vear ended Juno 20, 1922, £177.000 was"the cost of free rations for unemployed and ‘ won’t works ’ in the State of Queensland ? “Did ho tell them of the discontent among the Civil Servants and railway employees in the State of Queensland ? “ That in Queensland,_ as in other lands, the union executive is tho ‘ roaster,’ without whose consent a worker cannot call his soul his own?”