“ARE WE WANTED?”

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10962, 26 July 1921, Page 5

“ARE WE WANTED?”

AN IMMIGRANT S PROTEST BOLSHEVIK LABOUR’S EVIL INFLUENCE. EFFECT ON EMPIRE UNITY. “Are we wanted, or are we not?” was the question put by au agitated immigrant to a “New Zealand Times” reporter yesterday. Asked for some explanatory detail, eo that the query could be answered, the man—whose name for obvious reasons is withheld —said:— • . ' “I left my home at Woolwich in England last May, and came out to New Zealand to make a fresh start in a new land. I was told that what New Zealand wanted was population; that any man or woman not afraid to work Gould earn a good living, and succeed. I went to your High Commissioner’s office in the Strand, and there met with every courtesy and consideration. I was shown maps of New Zealand and given information—which proved to be absolutely reliable, except that ■the cost of living was represented as being cheaper than it turned out to be—and it was explained to me that I could have the choice of three districts : Auckland, Wellington, andl Canterbury. WELLINGTON THE GOAL. ! “I chose Wellington, and came out with my wife and two children. We had nearly £3OO between us, and we fully intended to make New Zealand our home. We wanted to give the children a good chance, and we could, think of no better place on the earth to-day—that is, for Britons. What I mean by that is that there are possibly other countries in the world offering inducements to people to settle there, where the climate is good, wages high, and there is a good demand for skilled labour; but they are (to an Englishman with an English wife) foreign countries, and there is, therefore, that objection to them. To some people, of course, that does not matter—some are just as content under one flag as another, eo long as the wages are all right and the prospects good. WANT TO REMAIN BRITISH. “Neither the wifo nor I are, however, built that way. She is a Warwickshire girl, and her family have lived there for many, many years. We wanted to get somewhere where the British flag waved, and where we could keep in close and sympathetic touch with British people and British affairs. So we came here.

“Now, don’t mistake me when I get to the part that hurts. I may be over-eensitive, and I may be judging wrongly, but while we have received every consideration at the hands of officials and, employers; while I have a good steady job at wages that enable me to put a little bit away for a rainy day, we get a terrible freeze from some of the Labour people now and again. Some of the boys are all right. Thcee whom we fought with on Gallipoli, France, and Mesopotamia, are just the same good fellows, in New Zealand as they were when in the army. THE BOLSHEVIK SECTION. “But there is a section —a real 80l shevdk section in my opinion—persistently trying to discourage us, to pot ns, as we used to say. These men are badly led. Some (not all) of the men who lead them appear to look upon us as intruders, and the others take up the cry. I have been accused of coming to New Zealand and taking' bread from the poor and the needy; of being the cause of so much unemployment, and that sort of thing. While a section of the workers, hold out the hand of welcome to us, another section hold aloof, and try all they can to ‘queer our pitch.’ As I say, many of those who shared the dan gers of the trenches play the game and appear to be genuinely ' pleased to see us; but tfie men I refer to, professing to speak in the voice of Labour are Bolsheviks pure and simple, and have neither the welfare of the British Empire nor New Zealand at heart. INJURING NEW ZEALAND.

“They' are doing incalculable harm to thisD.ominion. They are professing to speak and to act on behalf of the labouring classes, when I can see for myself that they are merely speaking on behalf of a small but noisy, militant, and bitter section. They misrepresent our positions, pur ideals and our ambitions, and thev would like the people to look upon the man and woman who honestly come out to New Zealand to make a home and becomo decent settlers as interlopers, intruders, and men who want to snatch work from those who need it most. It is a lie!” cried the man indignantly. “It is an insult to us, to our wives and children, and the country from which we came. “FROM GOD KNOWS WHERE!” “And that’s why I ask: Are we wanted or are we not? Wo are told at Home that this is God’s Own Country—and so it should be with its beautiful climate and lovely scenery and general prosperity. We are told that the Dominion offers opportunities to honest men and women who are not afraid to work, and where those .with a little money saved up can have a chanoe of doubling it in time. People write and ,talk of Australia, Canada and New Zealand as places where Britons would be welcomed and made to feel that they were amongst comrades and friends. And so they are to a oertain extent. But when people have severed the personal and business ties that keep them at Home and they come out here to throw in their lot with good people—a set of d disloyal Bolsheviks, many of whom come not from Britain, but from God knows where, are allowed to freeze them and spurn them until to a sensitive man his life becomes a hell. THREAT TO UNITY OF EMPIRE. “It will have to be stopped,” he concluded, “if New Zealand is to take the place intended for it. . The present vindictive method of choking off immigrants is going to do more harm to this country than many people imagine. It will prevent the right sort of people from making their homes here and becoming permanent settlers. It will discredit New Zealand in tho eyes of tho British people, and it will cause bad feeling to arise, so that in time unity of Empire will be affected. Some of us wonder whether or not that is their real reason for doing it.”