ALIENS IN THE NORTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16500, 28 March 1917, Page 8

ALIENS IN THE NORTH.

PROBLEM OF EMPLOYMENT. PROPOSALS FROM KAITAIA. The Kaitaia Chamber of Commerce, at its last meeting, discussed the question of alien labour? The following resolutions, proposed by Mr. Allen Bell, were carried :— (a) That all aliens be compelled to register at once (b) that ill single and married aliens itp to the age' of 55, excepting those proposed exemptions in paragraph "c," bo nationalised for labour on farms and public works at a maximum wage of lis a day; (c) .that all aliens at present on the gumfields over the age of 55 and those engaged in farming, or in gumdigging and farming, be left on the fields, excepting in cases where two or more are in partnership; (d) that where men arc required to shift from one district to another the expense of shifting the individual or family be borne by the State,'; (e) that all aliens who refuse to work under the above-mentioned conditions be interned; that~a recommendation be sent to the Efficiency Board suggesting that the gum industry be classed as p. partially essential industry, in order that trade should not be jeopardised by losing our connection with manufacturers in other countries, and that the chamber considers that the exempted men on gumfields would be sufficient to keep our trade connection until the termination of the war.

The proposals were considered at a public meeting held in Mangonui. They were adopted, with the following amendments —The deletion of the words following "public works" in clause "b," the deletion of "State" in clause "d," and the substitution of the words "by those employing them."