“WAGES NO OBJECT."

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8362, 24 February 1913, Page 6

“WAGES NO OBJECT."

A correspondent signing himself “Grocer” writes from Hastings enclosing the following advertisement from tho Napier “Daily Telegraph” : “Wanted, by New Arrival from Ireland —Position in Store or Warehouse; wages no object; very willing.—Labour Bureau.” Our correspondent' suggests that a subscription ought to be raised to pay the unhappy advertiser’s passage hack to Ireland, and offers a sum of money as a contribution. It would bo no use trying to collect money for this purpose in Hawke’s Bay, says “Grocer,” because that part of the country is “fairly overrun with incompetent new-chnms.” We do not know whether or not this last statement is correct, but the advertisement quoted speaks for itself. It certainly must carry a strong warning and a grim moral lesson to all people who are not heartless or. stubborn. This is not an isolated example of very sad hardship. There are numerous persons in all the principal New Zealand towns who have arrived from Britain in tho last few months and are now in circumstances similar to those of this unfortunate Irishman, (n Soliciting work he is driven by penury and want to hold out the pathetic inducement, “Wages no object.” To whatever Government tho responsibility may attach, it is clear that there is something wrong with the immigration system. Some of those who are induced to come to New Zealand are incapable of adapting themselves to the conditions that prevail, with the result that they simply find themselves in competition with New Zealanders of similar status and character —happily, a very small percentage of the whole community. But the self-styled Reform Government has practically undertaken to suddenly launch out with “an active policy of immigration” which involves the importation of 25,000 people a year. There is at the present time no prospect of such a great influx of population being usefully absorbed. There is certainly no land to offer them, since thousands of New Zealanders have to be refused access to the soil and have at successive ballots acquired bitter knowledge of the fact that_ “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” Unless there is land available, there must in the alternative be employment offering—and plenty of it—before any sane Administration can dream of what is the avowed intention and “policy” of Reform. We do not want a solitary person in New Zealand to bo vainly looking for work. Certainly the people will denounce any “policy” reducing immigrants to a state of life in which they can say, “Wages no object.”