IS THERE JEALOUSY?

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1436, 10 May 1912, Page 3

IS THERE JEALOUSY?

NEW ZEALANDERS IN AUSTRALIA. AN ALLEGED BOYCOTT. Is llie New Zealaiuler disliked in Australia, and boycotted by employers? A New Zealander who has lately arrived in Sydney (soys the "Sydney Morning Herald" of .'slay :i), and not met with the success ho anticipated in securing a position to his liking, avers that tfiere is marked antipathy towards New Zealanders. The assertion is, however, generally ridiculed by others hailing ironi flic Dominion who "have made their homes here. It may at the outset be pointed out that there are, to the lust census returns, something like 13,000 New Zealander* in Sydney, am! about 10,0(10 in Jielbourne, and tile majority of tlieni are doing well; so well, indeed, Hint though tliey never lose an opportunity of "boosting" their own country, that being characteristic of New Zealanders, they rarely ever return to it except for a holiday trip. Ear from (here being any feeling against New Zealanders, they are often sought after and employed in preference to Australians, according to tho statement of one business man seen on the subject yesterday. In fact, some establishments in .Sydney contain so many New Zealanders that they have been designated ".Maori pas." "NO NEW ZEALANDERS NEED. APPLY." Tho new arrival who alleges that New Zealanders are boycotted, says: "I was told by my friends on all sides, 'Go to Sydney, that's where there is big money to be made, there is plenty doing there.' So 1 went. 1 found my friends were not altogether wrong. There is certainly plenty doing in Sydney, but I'm alraid they omitted to tell me rather an important factor in the case. If there is plenty doing in Sydney thero aie also plenty doing it. Now, I'm lint one to squeal at my failure to light on a billet in open competition, but the conviction is forcing itself upon me that in the clerical line, at any rate, all the 'positions vacant' which are so regularly and methodically advertised are labelled with invisible ink, 'No New Zcnlandors need apply.' I say this in no idle spirit of disgust that repeated applications for comparatively modest situations, well within the scope of my attainments, have failed to produce the required result. A friend whispered in my ear the insidious suggestion that possibly my failure to 'make good' was to bo put"down to the country 1 came from. And really, I begin to think it looks as if my friend was right. 1 liavo applied quite recently for positions where applicants were invited to slate salary required, and, without the least intention of taking the position, were it offered, 1 have named a figure that would hardly satisfy the average Chinaman, still without having the desired (?) effect. Now, from my own personal knowledge, I can I cav that tho average Australian who tempts fate in Now Zealand gets a good hearing, too good, I have often thought, considering tho relation of realisation to expectation from the employers' point of view. AVhy, then, should the poor emigrant from" there be ranked among the earlv Christians in the time of Nero? It is up to employers to give those who seek employment a'hearing, and not turn a New Zeaiander's application down just because he is a New Zealander. 'Australia for the Australians' is an admirable war-cry, but I'm sure the inventor of tho expression never meant it to attain so wide an application as the above state of affairs would seem to indicate." "UTTERLY ABSURD!" "Utterly absurd!" said Mr. C. 51. Monteiiore, genera! manager of the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation, who has lived for over twelve years in New Zealand, when tho above was read to him. "Why, it has been said," he continued, "that you couldn't throw a stone anywhere in the streets of Sydney or

Melbourne without hitting some New Zealander or-diming ;i iiroiuiiiosit position in tlio-x- cities'.' ] say tin's flint n XcnZealander' y.-ls n:i bettor here than an Australia!! tines in New Zealand. There is smile feeling against Australians in the Dominion. 1 once read a paragraph in one of the papers (here, staling: "Two Australians passed through Ashburton yeslei'ilnv. bill up loliie preseiil nothing lias been missed.' The papers usually wind up their reports of burtclaries by savins that it is susiieeted that some Australian criminals ha've heen at work. New Zcalanders yet along very well here; in fiict, 1 believe that they yet better chances than the Ausiralians'tlieiuselves. J am bound t(. say that I hey are better disciplined, and they're keener about the little things. They are educated differently, they speak l differently, they are more polite, and (hero is very little'of the larrikin clement among' them. Outside the good men who enme here, a great proportion of ne'er-do. wells find their way across, ;i] „! yoii can understand an employer whose experience has beer, confined to this class saying: 'No more New Zealnnders for me!'" 5101(13 GIUT AND INITIATIVE. That New Zcalamlcrs find ditliculty in securing employment in Sydney is also quite contrary to the experience of .Mr. K. 11. Montgomery, the agent for the Now Zealand Government, lie says: "1 have never heard of n single instance, where an applicant has been 'turned down' by reason of his New Zealand origin. In fact, 1 can point to scores who liil responsible and remunerative positions (o-day with credit to themselves and satisfaction to their employers. The New /inlanderis generally in demand by reason of his grit and initiative, and this may be duo in a measure to the, fact that he is away from his base, and has to rely solely upon liis own resources ;ind capacity to make good. He is to bo found in all walks of life, and I am daily brought into contact with prominent people who arc proud to remind me that they hail from 'God's own country.' Of course, I am speaking in a general way, and am fully prepared to admit that isolated eases may occur in which the element of hard luck dominates." - Mr. Owen Cox, president of the NewZealand Association in Sydney, also declared that his experience was that Australians had a most cordial regard for their kith and kin in the Dominion. He had never heard a whisper of any objection being made to a man simply because he was a New Zealander. On the other hand, many business men had spoken very highly of the Now Zealanders in their employment. He was convinced that the statement as to the Ixiycott was quite contrary to fact.