THE AUSTRALIAN WORKMAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14932, 4 March 1912, Page 8

THE AUSTRALIAN WORKMAN

UNPOPULAR IN AFRICA

NEW ZEALANDERS PREFERRED.

A *' SORTING OUT" AT WAIHI.

[from our own correspondent.] . Sydney, February 28. "The Australian miners at Wailii aro blamed for the labrw troubles that have occurred there, and I know that there is going to bo a sorting out of tho Australians next June if there is any more bother. They don't like them in New Zealand any more than we do in South Africa." The speaker was Mr. H. Cramer-Roberts, general manager of the Liverpool and Caledonian mines in tho Umtali district in Rhodesia, -who has just returned to Sydney from a visit to New Zealand. Following up his statement that Australians were not thought much of in South Africa, or in Now Zealand, Mr. Cramer-Roberts told an interviewer: Australians are not thorough in their work, and aro known throughout South Africa as "chancers," a term applied to those who take billets, whether capable of filling them or not, on the chance of scraping through. Moreover, he rays that Australians are groat " blowers "—-worse even than Ameri—and sow seeds of discontent among workers wherever they go. _ Now Zealanders were sought after as mine workers, but Australians were turned down.. Why ? " Well the New Zealander is more conscientious and more competent." "Are you a New Zealander?" queried tho pressman. " No, I am not. But you have asked why we prefer the New Zealander, and I'm telling you. Ho is a much better worker, 1 am speaking of mine workers only, and I am not giving my personal experience as much as the general experience. Tho Australian lias got a bad name, Probably the reason of the New Zealaader being' in demand >s that he invariably has gone through a course at tho technical school. In the New Zealand mining towns there are technical schools, and the young fellows working in the mines attend them, and so gain a theoretical as well as a practical knowledge of mining, which stands _ them in good stead when they go out into tho world. Wo find the New Zealander more studious and more saving. You don't, find him ; knocking down his cheque and going on the spree on pay day. Ho doesn't want to paint the town red'like the Australian." As illustrating tho feeling against Australians, the visitor mentioned that just before ho had come away from Rhodesia he was conversing with another mine 'manager, when a shift boss cam© along and said he wanted an extra man, and that two were available. "Where do they come from?" asked the mine manager. ''One is an Australian and the other a New Zealander," said the shift boss. " Take the New Zealander on and pass the other fellow out," was the instruction the manager gave. The strictures of Mr. Cramer-Roberts have naturally provoked a considerable amount of comment. , Mr. Tom Miller, president, of the New South Wales Labour Council, declares in an interview published to-day that the Australian workman is tho best in the world, and he makes the point that he speaks as one who has had experience of New Zealanders. "In respect," he says, "of the statement that New Zealanders are more competent than our men, I may say that I worked in the Dominion for 15 months. I was a wharf labourer and a coal

lumper, and I even put in a few months on the Main Trunk railway in*the King Conntry, so you see I know a little about labour there. I came back to Sydney in 1904, and then it was generally conceded that the Australian worker could and did rank with

the best procurable, and also that he was never at a loss for employment. " But just at that time a number of the more disreputable men from the Australian States migrated to New Zealand, and soon found themselves in trouble. So many of them coming before- the police courts gave the Australian, as a worker, a bad name, and I, with many' other Australians, called myself a Canadian, or an Englishman. Around Port Chalmers and the Franklin

Peninsular, in the South island, I found that the majority of the grass-cutters were men from different parts of Australia. At that time it was easy for any competent Australian worker to earn from 15s to £1 a

day. I think that is sufficient answer to Mr. Cramer-Roberts's sweeping assertion against our workers." Roforring to Mr. Cramer-Roberts's statement that Australians are always dissatisfied, and that they are continually creating strife, Mr. M'iller pointed out that the record of strikes in all parts of the world certainly showed that industrial trouble here was on a very small scale in comparison. "I will say, however," Mr. Miller added, " that the Australian workers generally appreciate a good employer, and will not stand being fooled about by overbearing and grumbling employers, who can't appreciate good service when it is rendered. That is a spirit that I don't think should be condemned."