The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1911. LITTLE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13337, 28 March 1911, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1911. LITTLE NEW ZEALANDERS.

It ; s stated that a deputation of the Trades and Labour Council, of Wellington is to wait on the Hon. J. A. Millar to protest against Mr T; E. Sedgwick’s proposal to bring out another contingent of boys from England for farm work, and to strenuously object to Mr Sedgwick's request for a subsidy in aid of the passage of boys willing to come to New Zealand. The Trades and Labour Council in Wellington seems fo be perennially in a state oi protest and strenuous objection to something. Indeed the habit appears to have giowii on it to such a degree that it feels impelled to strenuously object to anything that is engaging the attention of the country, whatever its nature may be. One wou’d like to put a few queries to this class of prohibitionists. Why should the. boys not come to New Zealand? Do the Wellington Trades and Labour Council own the country? Should Mr Millar be sympathetic when these people, go up to protest? Will they next demand that the entrance doors to the Dominion shall ho slammed in face of creation? Further, seeing that (lie boys are such obnoxious animals, will they ask Mr Millar to come out as a modern successor to Pharoah and Herod and give orders to factory inspectors to knock all boys on the head born in the country after that date? Ihat would be the most effective form strenuous objection to boys could take, and the idea is offered to the objectors for what it is worth. If Mr Sedgwick had suggested going into the slums of the Old Land and gathering from the highwjays and byways the unfortunate lads whose chief environments arc poverty and crime, there might he some cause for objection. But even these lads are not without hope, and we have yet to, learn that our sister Dominion, Canada, ever protested or regretted the entry into,that country of tens upon tons of thousands of the boys rescued from the streets and trained in the Homes of Dr. Barnardo and other philanthropists. Wo do not doubt that there may be a genuine desire on the part of the Trades and Labour Council to protect the interests of the workers already in the Dominion, but it is quite possible to carry this protection to extreme and unjustifiable limits. It is all very well for the Council to set itself up as a protector of the workers, but surely it has other functions. If it is part of its duty to prevent the introduction of fresh workers into what it liclieves to he an already overstocked market, surely it is equally its duty to assist in supplying a deficiency. Take one class of trade as an example—plastering. For some years past the greatest difficulty has been experienced in New Zealand in securing plasterers, and for this reason in Wanganui, as in other parts, of the Dominion, the completion of contracts has been hung up for months—is retarded to-day—and is likely to be for years to come unless some steps are taken to supply the demand. Has the Trades and Labour Council ever gone out of its, way to assist in this connection? And what has it done to supply labour for our woollen

mills, our boot and shoo factories, and for domestic service ? Of course, the main consideration which prompts the members of the Trades and Labour Councii to protest is fear of competition in their employment. At the same time, there is something to he said for their desire to prevent the boys being made slaves of, fur all farmers are not as considerate as they might he. The members of the Council reason along safe lines when they predicate that boys will become men in tune, and some of them will want to be wbarl labourers or pick and shovel men, etc., and (hey cling to. and act on, the economic heresy that (he amount of work required in a country remains stationary forever and ever, even while tlie population increases hy nnlold and untenable millions. Therefore, (be Trades and Labour Council already see with eyes prophetic the time when (ho hundred Sedgwick boys, if allowed to land, ■will bo brutally elbowing a similar number of present incumbents out of their jobs and they naturally lake time, by the forelock with a. view to obviating their impending fate. The worlds experience from the very beginning, however, has falsified such fears and demonstrated the reverse conditions on patches of its surface so vast and on such a- magnificent .scale that one would think even the Trades and Labour Council would be able to see them. Given the right kind of population, the move w : c have the better for everybody. Population means world dominance, or at least safety from attack, endless individual opportunity and national wealth. And if there is one thing more than another that should still the tremors of the Council and turn them into ardent apostles of immigration it is the fact that wherever immigration into a country is as great, or apparently greater, than its capacity of absorption the established labourers and industries experience an industrial boom. That has been tbc case in the United States, and is even more apparent in Canada at the present time? Concentrating upon Canada there arc immigration streams from all parts of the world, and every single entrant is obliged I)}' his necessities to become at once a customer to all the varied industries that minister to human needs. People whose mentality works in a half light among the many details of the great economic problems should not be allowed to dictate nnr policy. If a more vigorous policy were pursued with respect to the settlement of native lands, and there was room for a great immigration stream to spread, we should have a wave of prosperity in proportion. We could probably do with a thousand a day, including Sundays. If there was ever a country that needed population to take its own part in the hurlyburly of international strife and rapine more than New Zealand it has never been mentioned in history. It was wiped out before written history began. ) If the matter is looked at with an eye for its true aspect, wo should rather wonder that the statesmen of Britain do not endeavour to retain within the kingdom so ranch precious human material which is available for building up a mightier nation, than that we should wonder at our generosity in allowing it to land on our shores. Britain needs colonising as much as any country in the world. Nearly 300,000 British people leave the Tinted Kingdom every year for countries beyond the seas, although there is plenty of room for many millions more if the land were not locked up by a few Dukes and Lords. A country which sends out hundreds of thousands of its most enterprising people yearly, rather than disturb the titles of a few thousand land owners, is committing suicide. This specially applies to Britain, when wo find that too only serious rival she has in }luropo is adding million to million and so is continually being enabled to bear her burdens more easily. If Britain kept her people at home her population, her wealth, and her competition would be immensely improved. No doubt the Liberal Government apprehend the position quite dearly, and we may rest assured that the reforms they will initiate when the Lords have been chivied out of the House of Obstruction will so modify tbc social and economic conditions in England as to make it infinitely more attractive and thus turn the tide of immigration inward upon ■lf. own waste places. The situation in the, Pacific is full of menace. Only people, and more and more people, can assure onr future. Only men of asinine intelligence could “protest and strenuously object” to any docent white immigrants coming to the country to help ns to hold it. If people like the Wellington Trades and Labour Council could control the policy of the country in regard to immigration, the next phase of the trouble would not be a pretest agairist the entry of a hundred British boys,'but the incursion of a million Japs.