Startling Indictment of Conditions in New Zealand.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18451, 30 April 1928, Page 1

Startling Indictment of Conditions in New Zealand.

“ A MILK-AND-HONEY TRAP,” SAYS ENGINEER, IN WARNING TO EMIGRANTS.

“ WITHOUT YEAR’S WORK GUARANTEED, YOU FIND YOURSELF IN ENEMY’S COUNTRY.”

UNDER the heading, “A Mi indictment of conditions ir ncwlv-arrived immigrant appear Opinion,” of March 24. The wri Civil Engineer,” and the stateme to anyone who values the goo< article reads: — Every year so many thousand people leave Great Britain to go to New Zealand. the much-advertised Land of Milk and Honey. Would you like to know what happens to them? The first thing an emigrant discovers on arrival is the fact that, while his home country supplies the Dominion with cash to carry on. this same money is at a discount if he brings it into the country.. Tn any shop in New Zealand a ” Bradbury ” will be cashed at a discount of 2s in the pound. This means 10 per cent loss. Even the banks will deduct 2 or 3 per cent on English gold. Unless an emigrant arrived with an assisted passage, in which case one vears work is guaranteed him, he will find that he is in an enemy’s country. Natural Fear. The native labour, and. I must acknowledge, not without a good reason, objects to having a continuous stream of destitute emigrants dumped on its shore. One morning I read, while riding in a tramear. that 345 assisted emigrants had just been landed. A worker turne.l round to me and said: “ That means that so many of us will be thrown out of a job.” The new and half-frightened arrival makes a more pliant servant or worker than the New Zealander. That is why many employers make it a rule to fill up with newcomers and disr miss their old hands “who know too much.” As a result unemployment is terrible The secretary of one labour union told me that he had 3000 men out. One day I stopped at a farm-house on the Nahauranga Gorge Road, near Wellington. With me was a Government engineer, who had just told me that, appalled by the unemployment, the Government had done some relief work and had altered some of the curves in the road. Doctor's Big Drop. ~~ Some men were still employed on a similar job. The-farmer’s wife asked us in and started to talk about unemployment. The engineer laughed. She got very angry as she said: “Do.you know how many starving men I feed a day here on this out-of-the-way farm? Between thirty and forty. There are some of your men working up the gorge. “ They tell me themselves they are trying to stretch the job as long as possible. as they have wives and kiddies to support, and do you know that most of these men should not be doing that work ? ” She introduced me later to one of them who was wheeling mud in a barrow. He proved to be a doctor who, misled by the advertisements spread all over Great Britain, had come out with a wife and three kiddies. Every doctor in the land made a set against him, and. whilst he was earning 15s a day, his wife was making another os as a charwoman. Possibly you will think that a pound a day for six days is not half bad. Let me tell you for a start that he may work only five and a quarter days, thanks to union rules. Thus you may deduct about 15s off this income, as his wife has to spend Saturday at home, shopping and looking after the kiddies. Rabbit-hutch Houses. His rent of two rooms, and three families using one kitchen, costs him £2 10s a week. This does not include cooking or gas. fires or light. Food, as produced in the islands, costs the same as in England—that is, bacon, mutton, butter, cheese. Bread costs double. Milk is a little cheaper and better. But his clothes are twice or three times the home price. So are streetcar fares and any luxury he may want. Tobacco, cigarettes, everything is more expensive. To solve the housing problem there are whole colonies of rabbit-hutches of 15ft by 20ft springing up around the towns. These shelter one or two families. Most of the buildings are made of wood and jerry-built. Finally, I must add, you have to

ilk-and-Honey Trap,” a startling n New Zealand as they affect the rs in the London journal, “Public iter signs himself “ W. .T. Brands, ?nts he makes must be disquieting id name of the Dominion. The

clothe yourself as the temperature, at least around Wellington, is much colder than in England. Our charwoman's husband has been in New Zealand for two years. He is a skilled mechanic and acetylene-welder. He has not been able to get a job fot all that time, and lives on what she earns. At last he hears that some ship repairs are being done at the dock. The old woman tells us with tears of joy in her eyes; her “old man” has found work at last. He had gone down on the Saturday and the foreman told him to start work on the Monday. Next day she is depressed and my wife asks her what is wrong. Dangerous Work. “Please, mum,” she says, “the job my husband had is off. He went down on Monday with his old blue overalls, proud and happy. Then he gets there and them New Zealanders crowd around aqd say, ‘We don't want any .of you home-birds here. You get out of this dock or you'll be carried out.’ “But he thinks oi me and gets oh •with the job. By and by a hammer drops from above past his face. Then a block of wood comes down. A piece of iron hits him and he gets his poor face cut open. Weil, mum, then he quit. And we sold up our horns to come out here.” There is a Frenchwoman going home on the next steamer. She sold all her belongings and came to Wellington to join her daughter, who is married to an Englishman. Her husband is a mechanic. Now he gets an occasional £4 a week. the equivalent of 25s at home, when there is work unloading steamers. His wife does sewing and charing to keep the family of five going. They live in one room, and seven families use the same kitchen. He has been seven years in New Zealand. Her daughter will not allow her mother to speak French in public: “ New Zealanders don’t like foreigners.” Disappointed and lonely she goes back to France. If you go out in the hope of working hard for a year and then starting a small truck farm of your own, you are making a great mistake. All truck farming and egg and fruit business is in the hands of the Chinese'. Tn the capital, Wellington, there is only one store of this kind which belongs to a white woman. Everyone I have seen in the North Island from Wellington to Auckland is in Chinese hands. If you try' to break into their business the Chinks will freeze you out for the benefit of their yellow brethren. Stay at Home 1 So you can see the people who left the homeland with hope in their hearts, men, women and children, tramping the roads of this “ Land of Milk and Honey ” in an icy breeze and pouring You can see public school boys being trained to become farm-labourers, with no prospects of getting on, nothing before them, but such important posts as errand-boys and shop labourers. Unless you have a capital of £4OOO, don’t touch the country—and even then you are liable to be sold a pup.