Old Country Conditions.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 31, 28 February 1913, Page 3

Old Country Conditions.

MR GREEN'S IMPRESSIONS. Mr Albert Green, a former resident of Huntly. arrived in Auckland by the Maheno from Sydney on Sunday last, glad to return to the Dominion after some .six months, existence in England. While at home Mr Green took up his abode in Nottingham, from which he made frequent pilgrimages to other industrial centres. As a practical coal-miner, he was naturally interested in that industry, ii’ul actually worked for four dayin an English mine. He paints a gloomy and d ileful picture ol the conditions which prevailed, the wages earned. and the standard of living. Wages he states, were now smaller than they were ten years ago, while food values had hy from 25 to 50 par cat. Tim coal-mines, as a rule, \.orked three shifts of eight hours each not from hank to bank, a- ie the Dominion, but at tic- la -c the men being liable i > h called upon any tim " ’ tn lt the time honoured half- lay on Saturday was more honoured i the breach than in the rvance. In most «*t the in.a - visited by Mr Green the in minium wage was mx shilling- a day, the average d iilv ear ; rarely exceeding sown >a hi igand threepence. Insimv.n ‘r, ' i 1was very slack, and niurh h, • a time was the result. I’'S'- \- gases were very prevalent, .a u the precautions taken i > prolife I'M to pro of the miners were decid *di > poor, the mine-managers preferring the risk t pro- • iti rather than employ the meannecessary to reduce tin* percentage of gas to that demanded by law. The clothing and food stufD as purchased by the worker were such that no s *h-re pectin: New Zealander \v.» ild tder.it Shoddy predominat 'd in tin former, and adulter.e; \ « name

terised the latter. Brit o 1 - v 1 - now the dumping ground of the world’s surplus of fo<■ <! stulds and manufactures, and it appeared to Mr Green that cli apneswas the great desideratum as the consequent of -mall wsg while the tremend'.us intlux aliens had not only tend- 1 t reduce earnings, but a! * t lower the standard of livr.iand to degrade labour. 1 • x stuffs and wearing a; p:»r.of the best quality could b bought at a price far bey m the reach of w >rk«*rs and t i taking quality into c msidcrat im were as cheap in N«‘W / im as they were in mid r ■ i Nottingham. Compared with in- En confrere the New Zealand w -r lived in a paradise, the H i worker practically cx >tin sordid poverty, biting diand in an uncongenial env u ment, that could only in hoc pessimism, hop-.de u* , oi despair. Mr Green said that he w:» e alone in thinking the Oh Country a fine land to g t < ■ of, silica every 1»» t 1 -uvim for Australasia was I illy 1»» •<e f three or four in >nths prior t the date of - liling. Eng p !and. o K account of the prevalent dis tress that nq&jrally ac -ompanie small wages and distressin. conditions, was fast losing it manhood, the alien and th poverty-stricken b?ing t!ie onh ones a peering to 1* ■ • mt a with their poor, -id lot. Mor freedom, better w rk g c ditions, a finer dim it *, and more congenial environmer were to be found in New Z land to which lie and his famil were only too glad to return aftt an experience they would nevr care to repeat. To visit and t work in the Old Country v i calculated to remove disconteu and to make life in New Z land, by comparison, an idea one for the workingman. In reply to a qu *-tion a to the effec tof National Insu ance Act, Mr Green stated tin the feeling of the workii classes against it was very bit' but so down-trodden did r workers appear to be tiiat tin did not possess energv - liTc; to make their protests fdt. 1 told of a dock labourer wi whom he had conversed just b fore the “Otway” left t! London docks. During til week the labourer in questk had earned one shilling, out which fourpence went f insurance, leaving him to susta life ancl.be happy on the magi ficent sum of eight pence ! “As a working man.” conol ded Mr Green, “ give me Ne Zealand. There’s no count! in which the employee better off, and no place on ear the affords so much comfo happiness and freedom as Got Own Country. 1 have get hoi once more, and 1 shall ne\ wish to leave Maoriland duri the term of my natural life”