LABOUR MATTERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 8 March 1912, Page 1

LABOUR MATTERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —With vouv permission I wiil make a- few remarks on tho labour - j troubles, now so„ active all over tiio world, except- in India? phiiia ; mid. Japan. It is sad to «oe such incessant demands for an-increase of wages, and, as a labour agitator in triumph stated in. Australia lately, "a demand would bo, mad© shortly for a fix hours' day for workmen, to be followed .soon by a demand 'for a d.iy of four hours." Jhcro arc thousands of Chinese. and Japatieso in these colonies, and with what, plea- , sure they must' .«ee'tho accounte of tho, numerous strikes in . these colonios, and with great satisfaction they .niiist . soothe result of these > disturbances, and manufactories going up in each cquiitry—result of capital being driven.atyay from our Motherland and these from the thorough uncertainty of_tho labour market. Near th:s„ at the Para Para, there are large deposits of iron or. a that would have been worked Jo nil a (to, except for the uncertainty of t l } o labour question in New Zealand ?" ls would have given employment to hun- . dreds of men, and kept a great deal of money in the Dominion When these manufactories, are in full work, hbW can we compete for any requisite .withcoods that arc made by men receiving less 'than One shilling per in vessels on which I presume tno pay is about the same? A short time ago I saw that America had entered contract with a firm 111 China for . delivery of steel (I think)', 500,000. tons .per annum for ten years !■. What a leave that land. I see m the papeii orl contracts taken in Germany <ming to the strike in England, but none of u<jan fathom tho number of millions oE pounds that land has lost <iimng .the last few years to set up works m bouring countries where labour cheape? and men are more contented. The problem in, will that land we are so proud of be ruined by the worKiii„ classes in contrast to so many S ien , nations that have been, ruined through the anl ',\ C WORKMAN.