COMPETITION IN MARKET GARDENING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 38, 14 February 1905, Page 2

COMPETITION IN MARKET GARDENING.

fro the Editor.) Sir,—Will you kindly allow iae to refer to tlie closing sentence of your sub-leader on "Alien Immigration" 'in Thursday's "Star," which says: "But the tendency oJ such movements of population is always the same, and if we wish to escape the attendant evils we must look to it that our workers shall not be subjected to unfair competition at the hands of aliens content with a lower wage or a loTcer standard of comfort., be they Oriental or European." Now. sir. this is the very state oi things that easts at tie present time in the market gardening in and around Auckland. On what is commonly known as the Avondale Flat, or North Avondale. there are now a large number of Chinese working. The long hours which they work, the low wages they get, the insanitary conditions under which they live, and their being allowed to work on Sunday as on any other day. places them in a position that it is almost impossible tor the European to successfully compete with. Quite a number of white people have been replaced by Chinese. In one instance recently a Chinese gardener was advertised for. a white man being discharged, and a Chinese taken on in "his place, and some others are thinking of doing likewise. Now, sir, these long hours, low wages, insanitary conditions, and Sunday 'labour enable growers who have the advantage of them to sesure the contracts for the supply of vegetables to the many steamboats that are constantly leaving Auckland and Onehunga. and in other ways undersell us. Our sons, as they grow up, are compelled to leave the home and district and seek woTk elsewhere, while Chinese ccme and take their places: and they are bold enough to say that we cannot stop them from working on Sundays because they have to supply the boats. —I am, etc, W. KXIGHT, Avoadale.