A HOMEY AND FATHER OF NEW ZEALANDERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18452, 1 May 1928, Page 5

A HOMEY AND FATHER OF NEW ZEALANDERS.

To the Editor, Sir,— Readers of the 11 Star," whether New Zealand or Home-born, will feel pleased at your exposure of the “ startling: indictment of conditions in New Zealand ” published under the heading “ A Milk and Honey Trap ” in the Lon : don journal ‘‘Public Opinion.” “Startling’ it certainly is. As you in your leader state, “ the writer of the article gives his whole case away by constant exaggeration.” But does not the article go a little beyond exaggeration? Its whole tendency is so palpabiy to create ill-will, and the matter it discusses so important that I feel very strongly that the matter should be given further consideration; and with your permission, sir, and the indulgence of your readers, 1 beg to contribute my “bit” towards its further exposure. As to the facts (?) contained in the article, you have dealt with and disproved many of them in your leader. Concerning the others, kindly let me give you the experience of another who has gone through the mill.

“Bradburys cashed at 2s in the £ discount”—Mine, and all others on my boat, were exchanged at 6d. As I have paid the same discount on taking Scottish notes into England, and I had only just three weeks previously received 13s 4d for my Bradbury at the American port of Colon, I did not feel very hard done by. “He will find he is in an enemy's country.”—The first words spoken to me on landing at Auckland concluded with the word “ Brother.” I need not describe my feelings. If ever I have the money, and the Harbour Board permit me, I shall erect a monument on that spot—to a New Zealander. “ Native labour . objects to a continuous stream of destitute emigrants dumped on its shore.”—Show me the country whose native labour doesn’t! I left England for that very reason. There was no work for emigrant and native alike. The next statement deserves special attention. “The new and half-frighten-ed 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 dismiss their old hands who ‘ know • too much.’ ” —This either means that the employers are fools—which is doubtful! —or that this very quality of pliancy is what, gets one the job. I’ve never found it so. The employers I’ve struck have only asked whether you could deliver the goods. They’ve been hard, but fair —which seems a contradiction in terms, but isn’t. As for nationality, they haven't cared a tinker's cuss whether one is a New Zealander, Homey or a Laplander. It’s the job of work that matters. And here let me say, sir, that the Dominion is not in need of half-fright-ened arrivals. This new country, or Any other, wasn’t made by anyone halffrightened. Nor, indeed, was the Old Country. It is natural, of course, to feel strange in a new country, but the way to get over that is to roll up your sleeves and get into it. As for not being able to find anything to get into, I say that there is not another country in the world, except England with her unemployment insurance (which only works up to a point), where publicspirited efforts in our short periods distress are so ample.

” Unemployment is terrible. The secretary of one labour tinion told me that he had 3000 men out.”—Secretaries of branches of unions in England will smile at that figure. And did Mr Civil Engineer Brands gather his facts by politely believing everything that anyone chose to tell him? Is there any single union in New Zealand with a membership of 3000? Concerning unemployment being terrible, it is always that; but as to its amount, one may judge from the facts that at no time since 1919 has unemployment reached one-quarter the permanent total since the war of any 1,000,000 populated town of Great Britain.

The good housewife on the farm who had fed between thirty and forty “ starving ” men every day must have been a marvel. At the smaller figure, she fed 10,000 a year. Now, sir, we have dealt with the facts between us. But I consider the matter should be probed somewhat deeper than this. The writer is a civil engineer. lie, however, writes as an emigrant. Ostensibly, he is an Englishman addressing Englishmen. Yet he mentions repeatedly “ truck farm.” May I point out that the word “ truck ” as applied to farm is unknown to English people. The term we use is “ market garden.” We never hear of “ a truck farm,” and never even read of one, except in fiction dealing with American life. Then, respecting the journal “ Public Opinion,” 1 am rather at a loss. There is a prominent London weekly called “London Opinion,” dealing mostly in light literature; but, as one fairly conversant with Press publications at Home. I must admit that “ Public Opinion ” has e.scaped my notice. Perhaps it is one of those publications with a circulation on a par with its reading matter? I have taken up much of your space, sir, but I feel very strongly on this matter, as, I am sure, many others do. The article apparently was written, not to help his fellow countrymen—there is not one word of friendly advice contained in it—but to create and bespatter mud. It insults the native born, and hampers those who have come here, as the forbears of the native-born came, to seek a little more sunshine and security for themselves and their children. I could, if I thought I was not presuming too much, give you the experiences of an emigrant whose outlook was not perverted and whose courage was not found wanting. And many —most, indeed, of the new arrivals are made of the same stuff. I here are misfits and “half-frights,” naturally. -But please do not judge the grain from the chaff, as I, on my side, must say that if every New Zealander has not said to me “ Brother," they have at least said “ Give it a go” . . In conclusion, sir. 1 join with you in expressions of pity that it was nobodv’s business to deny it (the article in question) as soon as it appeared!’

Should it not have been the High Com missioner’s, or someone in his office? That it should be so I feel, both as A HOMEY AND A FATHER OF THREE NEW ZEALANDERS.