PUBLIC OPINION

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1935, Page 7

PUBLIC OPINION

VIEWS ON CURRENT TOPICS THE IMMIGRATION QUESTION; FARM CONDITIONS FACTOR. (To the Editor.) Sir, —In your paper of late there has been much controversy on the problems of immigration, but no one has. as yet given an immigrant’s view on this matter. Looking down the columns of the Daily News each day there always appears a considerable number of vacancies on farms, and yet there are so many unemployed youths in town. How is it that these fellows do not want to go . on the farms? Being an immigrant myself, perhaps I can answer this to a certain extent. In most cases a farm employee has a goiSd home. On the other hand the \ hours are certainly excessive, and if a farmer would stop and think he would know that one day off in a month is not enough. When a fellow is finished at night all he has to look forward to is a little sleep, and he is glad to have that. It is a case of living to work instead of working to live, and after all an employee is entitled to a little pleasure. Working from 14 to 15 hours a day on an average, also partly on Sundays, surely he is entitled to a little time off each week. One of your readers stated that part of the time was spent in reading. This may be so with the farmers but not "the employees. The point I am aiming at is this: How many past immigrants are still on farms and contented and how many future ones coming from British towns would be content to leave the life of the town and settle in the country to work their lives away, when the youths of towns in New Zealand have not grit enough to take the work on themselves? v Unless a union was formed to curtail the hours on farms, or another trade was found for them, immigration would only be adding more unemployment in the towns, for the British cannot be expected to stick to the conditions that a colonial will not in his own country.— I am, etc., • ’ AN IMMIGRANT. New Plymouth, Oct. 29. TARANAKI GROUPING SCHEME. (To the Editor.) ! Sir,—ln his letter to you which I read with interest Mr. W. C. Green, a confirmed advocate of . free marketing, suggests that owing to differences between North and South Taranaki, chiefly on matters of cheese policy and more particularly in to marketing, three groups be formed in Taranaki —a South. Taranaki cheese group, a North Taranaki cheese group, and a Taranaki butter group. His reason for these groups, he states, is that the North Taranaki factories have consistently supported the cause of freedom of marketing, and for that reason at least the North Taranaki factories should be allowed to run their own group. In my opinion the main idea behind the group marketing scheme is to bring about more co-operation with the different factories, whether they be North Taranaki or South Taranaki, or for that matter whether they be North Island or South Island factories, so why cannot the Taranaki factories work together in one group? It appears to me that the real reason behind Mr. Green’s proposal is that he considers that there would be a much better chance of him gaining his own ends in regard to f.o.b. selling if the -South Taranaki factories were not represented in a group in which he evidently considers that there is a good chance of him having a controlling interest. Would it not be better for Taranaki factories as a whole to get together and form one sound solid group administered by the best brains we have in the district, whether they be in favour of the present insane’ method of marketing or whether they be men who have recognised the fact that owing to the large increase in our exports of butter and cheese and owing to the glutted state of the British market new methods are required to sell our produce at a price that will be profitable to our army of hard-up dairy farmers?—l am, etc., >1 S. E. HAWKE. /. Tataraimafca, Oct. 31. Y.W.-Y.M.C.A. ENTERTAINMENT. (To the Editor.) Sir,—As a delighted spectator of the gymnastic display I should like again to express my deep appreciation of the beneficent community work done in and for this town by the Y.W.-Y.M.C.A. organisation under the whole-hearted and capable guidance of Miss Greenwell, Mr. Ledgerwood and their associates. 'Hie people who saw the display would feel amply rewarded for any help that they had given, and would recognise the movement as eminently -worthy of continued support from the townsfolk. . A prominent Scottish headmaster, I think it was Dr. Almond of Loretto School, strove to impress his scholars with these five things in order of importance: (1) Character; (2) physique; (3) manners; (4) intelligence; (5) (and last) information. The Y.W.-Y.M.C.A. organisation will greatly assist with the first three, and by friendly mutual co-operative effort among the young people themselves they will be trained into that foremost asset of any town—good- citizenship.—l am, etc., . GEORGE HOME. New Plymouth, Oct. 31.