CONDITIONS IN VANCOUVER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 228, 26 September 1928, Page 15

CONDITIONS IN VANCOUVER.

WARNING T# NEW ZXALAHBERS.

MUCH UNEMPIpYMENT

"Experience Teaches"* writes to us from Vancouver: "Just, a word through your columns regarding conditions in Canada. Every boat from New Zealand is bringing men to Canada, a proportion of whom are looking for work. As a New Zealander myself let me warn people from coming here on the easy assumption that work is plentiful and highly paid. Whoever comes out here thinking that is likely to be sadly disappointed. The position is that Vancouver, where the stranger lands, is overrun with the worklesa. Being on the coaet and enjoying a mild climate, it is the Mecca to which a constant stream of men from the more rigorous climate of the interior is constantly pouring. Add to this the number of workless sailors who are continually drifting in from the shipe and the considerable section of casual labourers resident here, and yon have all the elements of a place where work is difficult to get at any time, and in the wonter extremely so.

To make matters worse, there is a large coloured population- resident in Van-

couver. These undesbut the white man, and are employed almost exclusively in one large timber mill here, while Chinese and Japanese control a large part of the frnit and vegetable Itrade, and laundering and fish businesses, beside the large number employed as hotel and railway porters. Of those who came here with me in March of this year a few have got work, a number kfcre returned in disgust, and several "more are struggling along, not liking- to admit defeat and

living on a few dqjrs' work now and a few later on. Thefl© is a saying current here that the stranger has a hard time for the Urst two or three years, loses all his money, and then makes good— if he stays so lon$! "There is anottar thing which makes conditions peeulfeftrjy hard to a New Zealander. Everything is different. There is a different coinage. There are different ntethods used. For in-

stance, in the building trade there are different names for the parts of a building, the American terms being followed instead of the English. The timbers used again are different, and the mode of construction is on the lines of American mass-production. The buildings are rushed up, often in very inferior materials, and contracts are cut to the last cent. The farms in British Columbia are mainly in a swaddling stage. That is to say they are stiil only partly cleared and the rest of their area is bush. Further in the interior the intense rigour of the winter makes it necessary to stall and feed all cattle for months. So in a number of ways methods are so different in this country that a man has practically to learn his trade all over again. On top of this Canadians tell you quite plainly that Canada does not want working men; she has more than enough of her own. She is looking for two classes—tourists and capitalists, the latter to develop her industries and idle areas. My word to working men seeking to come to Canada is—don't. You are better off where vou are."