GLOOMY PICTURE

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1929, Page 16

GLOOMY PICTURE

INDUSTRIAL BRITAIN. CONTRAST WITH CONTINENT. Mr. Alec. Robertson, superintending engineer of the Otago Harbour Board, who has returned from England, said on? th© Clyde there were far more shipbuilding yards than there were ships/to build. Competition from the Continent was very fierce, and labour was in excellent supply. Industrial England was in a bad way. There were 1,250,000 people von the dole in England. They had 12,000,000 too many of a population; Work of all description was hard to obtain, wages .were low, and the cost of living was . high. “New Zealand is to be preferred every time to England-and Scotland,” said the engineer. “Scotland is no place for the white man to live in, because of the conditions. Engineers and turners get £2 17s Gd per week, and labourers from 35s to 28s per week. They can’t live, they only exist. . Roast beef costs 2s per lb. ” That is only one instance of the high cost of foodstuffs, yet on the other hand there is a tremendous show of wealth. It is unevenly distributed.” Every square; yard of Belgium was under cultivation, said Mr. Robertson. The development, was astonishing. Men, women and children cultivated the ground from moaning to night, growing foodstuffs for London. In England little cultivation was seen. The country appeared to be . a great pleasure ground, containing nothing but deer parks and golf links; In Holland and Belgium the workers were following a 54-hour week, as against England’s 48, and the workers received 1 Hd per hour, as compared with Is 3d in England, yet the cost of living ,was lower in the Continental countries. - - A tour of : the battlefields was made by Mr. Robertson, who said that the most impressive sight was the Meuin Gate, with its tablets of 58,000 missing British soldiers. In Tynecot Cemetery there were 38,000 graves. They were all wonderfully kept, with not a blade or rrrass out‘of place. At the entrance to {ill the cemeteries the names of the dead were kept, and any grave was easily found. ’ „ ~ . ~ He visited the battlefields of the Somme, Passchendaele and Hill 60. The battlefields were being cleared up, and even when he was on tour unexploded shells were being fired.