THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 1923. BAD TASTE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4515, 15 January 1923, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 1923. BAD TASTE.

In a recent advertisement appearing in an Auckland exchange the advertiser invited applications for an “expert mechanic,” but at the same time stipulated that “No ‘Homeys’ need apply.” Occasionally, of course, such regrettable things will crop up, but it seems rather a pity that qny journal should blacken, its columns by allowing notices of this description to appear in them. Exercising the greatest amount of tolerance,, it would be difficult to conceive what motive can possibly have led the advertised publicly to display such an unwarrantable “set” on “Homeys.” Extreme narrowmindedness, combined with a deplorable ignorance of the things that might possibly induce some men to vent ill-feeling in the way this advertiser has done; and it is not unlikely that most people will feel only pity and contempt on reading the notice. At the same time, advertisements of this nature are often seen by people in other countries and might, by .those who are not conversant with the actual conditions liere, be construed to represent the general feeling in New Zealand. It is an open question, therefore, if notices of a similar offensive nature should not be prohibited, as a libellous inference can readily be drawn form .them. As a matter of fact, the pioneers of New Zealand, as well as the stock which constitutes the very backbone of, the country, originated from the Homeland. It might even be —however regrettable —that the originator of the objectionable advertisement is himself! born of English parents. Without bejng excessively unkind he might, therefore, be likened to a man who speaks lightly of a woman's honour while forgetting .that he himself has a mother and sisters’. New Zealand needs more of the type that the advertiser refers to as “Homeys,” and particularly experts. It should be remembered that we are not yet abreast of the times in all manufacturing linos; that our engineering plants cannot ye,t be compared with those installed in the larger works in the Old County; and that only by the continual introduction of new blood and methods can we hppe rapidly to advance on progressive lines. Broadminded, sane New Zealanders will, io doubt, welcome the time when the prosperity of the Dominion warrants the adoption of a comprehensive scheme of immigration, and when more “Homeys” will come to swell the population of New Zealand.