THE PRISON CABBAGE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9133, 30 April 1908, Page 7

THE PRISON CABBAGE.

The Secretary of the Auckland Market Gardeners’ Association thus protests against the Prime Minister s cabbage garden policy in the recent proposition of Sir Joseph Ward in the matter of utilising prsion labour in the production of vegetables, which would be sold in direct competition with the products of free labour: “Wo have an example of how necessary ir is for a statesman to make himself thoroughly acquainted with tho real facts in relation to any industry before legislating thereon. In the present instance our Prime Minister is evidently under the impression that the European market-gardener is practically non-existent, and that the industiy :is entirely monopolised by tne Chinese ; whereas the fact is that a large proportion of the vegetables consumed in Auckland are produced by white labour. The immediate result of Sir Joseph Ward’s proposal if carried out, would be to deprive of their means of livelihood a large body of hard-working European gardeners, and to greatly depreciate the value of their property—a value which largely depends on its suic- • ability for this industry.’’