A PLETHORA OF WORKERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10069, 10 February 1909, Page 1

A PLETHORA OF WORKERS.

(Per Pbess Association.) Wellington, February 9.

The Trades and Labor Council to-night waited on the Hon. G. Fowlds, Minister for Immigration, to protest against a continuance of the present system of assisted immigration. It was pointed out that unemployment was general throughout the colony and the prospects for the coming winter were bad, hence the arrival of people from abroad was an embarrassment to the workers and to the country generally. ill- Fowlds, in reply, said a country with Xew Zealand's possibilities should be able to absorb a fair number of people in normal'conditions. It was wrong for the Government to add to an overstocked labor market, however, by paying for assisted immigration, and where it was evident this was the result it would be ended. The demand for domestic- servants w:i6 great and unsatisfied, and some time ago the Hitch Commissioner was instructed that only domestic servants and agricultural laborers should be assisted. Of the immigrants arriving only about onethird were assisted. Last- year, out of 6529 arrivals, only 1997 were approved 1 by the High Commissioner, and 1103 obtained assisted nassages on the nomination of friends in the Dominion. Certain shipping agents had been making statements which were unwarranted, and it was difficult to know how this was to be dealt with. It might, however, be possible for the Government to minimise the representations of some of the shipping agents. Anything that could be done to stop adding to an overstock®! labor market would be done. The Government, however, could not advertise all over the United Kingdom that there was no room in Xew Zealand, and it was no place for an individual or a nation to cry stinking fish in that way. The High Commissioner would give a clear statement of the different industries as revealed by the figures of the Labor Department. ' Regarding the cutting up of the land for settlers, the Minister said the Government was doing as much as possible, and he pointed out that there was plenty of good land: in Auckland to be had for the asking, i