EMPLOYMENT IN THE COLONY.

NZ Truth, Issue 67, 29 September 1906, Page 8

EMPLOYMENT IN THE COLONY.

Work For All. TO THE EDITOR, Sir,— ln view of the fact that the Honorable Hall-Jones has recently proclaimed the glorious news that there is work for all m this happy country, I would like to draw your attention to the following advertisement which appeared m the Christchurch "Star" on Saturday last, the 1-s th inst : WANTED, Work, book-keeping, driving, or general . laboring ; exceptional testimonials.— Apply to "Penniless," "Star" Office. Penniless ! What does the word imply ? Destitute m a colony, where a responsible Minister of the Crown declares there is work for all. And thousands of other's could tell a tale of woe perhaps equally pathetic to that of the author of the above advertisement. The truth is that there is not work for all, and that every boatload of poor immigrants who set foot m New Zealand make it harder for those already here to live. The Honorable Hall-Jones is a typical self-made man, he forgets the time when he was plain Mr Jones, working- carpenter, cf Timaru. If anyone had asked him then xo leave his wife and children, if he had any, to take care of themselves while he went several hundreds of miles further North to look for a job. I fancy Mr Jones would have smiled and asked him politely if he thought he was mad. And mad lie certainly would be if he did such a thing, unless he had married a tartar and wanted to get away frc~i her. Yet this is the sort of advice we get from a man to whom we pay a high salary to look after our political - and commercial interests. I wonder how long we are going to stand it ? Sending men to Parliament to make our laws for us and then practically told by them that we have no right to expect workalongside our own homes. If the country were properly governed we would most assuredly get work near pur own homes, but it will be necessary to do' a lot of hard work before we shall succeed m relegating men of the Hall-Jones type to private life and getting them replaced by those who are alive to the fact that State regulation of commerce could very easily find work for everyone, antf shorten the hours' of labor.. We want our natural resources developed, and. our industries increased, and if the State controlled them with a view to supplying everybody with the necessaries of life instead of allowing private capitalists to exploit, the colony for their own selfish ends our newspapers would cease to disgrace our civilisation with advertisements like the one I have quoted.— l am, &c, Nym. • September 18, 1906.