"KEEP AWAY FROM NEW ZEALAND."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9189, 11 September 1908, Page 5

"KEEP AWAY FROM NEW ZEALAND."

ADVICE FROM A COLONIST. Ey last week's mail I quoted an extraordinary article which had appeared in the Saturday "Journal" under the heading "Keep Away From New Zealand," writes tne London correspondent of the Welling- j ton "Post." under date July 31st. t This week the same journal published \ a>reply which it has received from c Mr J. Mills, a resident of Pahiatua, ■ Wellington, New Zealand, who j writes giving quite a different ver- } sion of affairs. He says:— ( "New Zealand is the land for the j worker, not the shirker. After a stay of 35 years in the colony, I ought to • know. I have an axe to grind, for 1 am a working carpenter—and, mark you, can afford to pay a six months' visit to the Old Country! New Zealand wants emigrants, and as advertising for them; but the invitation in the advertisement is extended, not to engineers and mechanics, but to | agricultural workers .and domestic ■ servants. The statement that it is ] practically impossible to find a farmer willing to employ a man' at even ' the meanest wage is ridiculous. "It -will, of course, take a long time to find employment on a farm, if, as many emigrants do, you seek your ' farmer in one of the big cities. Go up-country—the further you get from the populous centres the warmer will be your welcome, if self-styled 'engineers' are not invited to New Zealand, it is a libel on the country to say that none but struggling little firms are to be found there. In Wellington some 700 fitters and mechanics find employment—one firm alone employing 200 . hands. But—and here's the rub!—they have to work! And so it is in every walk of life over there. The dock labourer gets one shilling an hour, with double pay for all time he works over eight hours in the day—but he has to work f6r it! It is no fairy tale, this eight shillings a day for labourers. There is not a governing body in New Zealand but pays this wage to their scavengers and labourers, and private employers have been forced to follow their example. And skilled workers? Well, it is of little use being skilled in work which is not wanted; but if you an a skilled carpenter or bricklayer, or navvy, or tradesman in any branch of the building trade, then you will find work at wage 3 up to four guineas for a 48-hnur weeK. "So with the land," continues Mr Mills. "The emigrant who expects to find the Government anxiously ' waiting to hand over on easy terms the choicest plots of land is doomed to disappointment. As well expect that there would be no competition for possession of a site in the Strand. My own case will well illustiate the absurdity of these expectations. The township where my settlement is situated has now 7,000 inhabitants and the surrounding land is eagerly sought after. But when I settled there the total population was less than twenty, and the land was covered with bush—which, by the bye, would be more accurately de- ■ scribed ,as forest. We pioneers • cleared our laud of the bush and made it valuable, and others came | and followed our example; and so a ! township grew up, and the land was . cleared for miles around. May I add . that my total capital on landing in ■ New Zealand amounted to ten sbiHj ingß—jmct plenty of pluck!"