BRITISH IMMIGRANTS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 78, 16 March 1923, Page 5

BRITISH IMMIGRANTS.

LABOUR PARTY’S., OBJECTIONS. Immigration, housing, and unemployment are the subject of a lengthy letter sent by the secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party (Mr. W. Nash) to the secretary, of the British Labour Party (Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P.). Mr. Nash writes that the guarantee required of nominators of immigrants is a simple statement that work will be found for them on arrival. With regrd to other immigrants, he complains that there has been, and still is, a good deal of unemployment; that the position of housing was never worse; that two to five families are living in one house. When conditions were normal, immigrants would be gladly welcomed. On arrival, immigrants are used, says Mr. Nash, to reduce wages and depress the standard of living. He quotes the Arbitration Court award as reducing the wages of seamen, and states that the majority of “blacklegs” that manned the ships during the seamen’s strike came from England. Miners, he declares, suffered two “cuts” in wages within a year, and were working short shifts; the housing conditions in the mining areas were appalling, and the Government had reserves of coal, so that miners would be starved into submission in the event of a strike. “Would it not be wiser for Britain to use her efficient farm labour to increase the food supply at Home, rather than they should emigrate to New Zealand?” he asks. “We object to immigration at the present time, because it is: (1) Being used to depress wages; (2) rendering the shortage of houses more acute; (3) increasing rents; (4) creating a slight feeling against newcomers, because of 1,2 and 3. I believe that if we had a Government with vision, the unemployment difficulty would be solved within a few months, and the housing shortage overcome within a year or so. When these two things are done, we will gladly welcome the workers from overseas.”