CONTRACT LABOUR. And Colonial Conservatism.

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 259, 17 June 1905, Page 6

CONTRACT LABOUR. And Colonial Conservatism.

EVERYBODY remembers "thesis, hatters" — English contract labourers— about whose arrival from Home such a tremendous hubbub was made im Australia, and who were practically made prisoners. Also everyone remembers the "six potters," andthe contract "lady's maid," and all the rest of the dreadful Britisihi people who dared to desire to work: in a British colony. Then, yotu remember the treatment of "conrtract labourer" Kenneth Harper, who was imprisoned m America for accepting a billet in an American bank. * * • Somehow "Australia for the Australians," and "New Zealand for theNew Zealanders," doesn't square with, "a united Empire," and the loyal and fraternal sentiments we love to hear from the steps of every new building. Some girls from Australia have been getting jobs in woollen mills down South. Dreadful, isn't it? What right have these kin of ours to expect to be welcomed in democratic New Zealand? We want to keep th© country to* ourselves. That is to say, a light sprinkling of people on the surface of a large land is the very best way to get along. Rubbish ! * ♦ * A deputation from the Tailoresses r Union at Christchurch waited on Mr. Seddon to complain about these dreadful girls who came to work in New Zealand. Seems as if there wasn't food enough to go round, and that half-a-dozen girls were going to crowd the natives over the cliffs. We are getting shockingly selfish in New Zealand when we rise up and wildly whoop because business is growing rapidly enough to make it necessary to import labour to keep it going. * * * Mr. Seddon thought it wouldn't do to draw the line too tightly. Mr. Seddon is right. The disposition in this country to intense labour conservatism is decidedly growing, and in the race for industrial existence, if not supremacy, the weaker goes to the wall. Absurd prohibitions are hardly likely to swell the exchequer, and the crippling of industries by lack of "hands" must ultimately injure the people who scream out that they are getting hurt' by the arrival of more people of our own blood. * * • New Zealand has not a million people, and it has room for forty millions. We make ourselves ridiculous by using 1 every means in our power to deter increase in population, and in crying because an Australian girl has got a job that a New Zealand girl might have had if she had been smart enough to' get it. We have got to learn to> be not so squeamish of competition. Any white person who can do good work ought to have as good, a chance of a job in this country as any nativeborn person. If New Zealanders are the best able to occupy New Zealand positions, let them show it. The weaker goes to the wall, and the strong doesn't fear the weak competition Therefore, let us work harder, and talk less.