CLERK TO ROADMAKER

Shannon News, 2 November 1926, Page 2

CLERK TO ROADMAKER

LETTER FROM NEW ZEALAND. THE MAN WHO IS WANTED. LONDON, August 24. A letter from a young New Zealand settler, who was a bank clerk in this country, but has been road-mak-ing in his new home, is mainly interesting because of the publicity given to it by the "Morning Post." The young settler has written to his father, who has passed the letter on to the editor of the paper. "Road-making in New Zealand," the writer says, "still appeals to me more than clerking- in a London office. It is not all work. I was able to keep a horse most of the time, and was very independent. I learned quite a number of useful things, such as how to deal with D.T. cases, make bread, and handle a crowd of hard shots who didn't want work, and other things. When I finish my forestry course I hope to get back to the bush, not stay in an office. The real stuff is done in the bush, or it should be, and when I have men working for | me they will, be the same type *of ehap as my road-makers, and I'll know them.

"With our system of schooling in England we never had a chance of developing physically ;it was one long cram from start to finish. We didn't train for games, there wasn't time; and the whole thing i s simply done so that one is enabled to dodge doing hard work with one's hands. It is quite wrong. In England the workman such as a carpenter, bricklayer, plumber, etc., etc., is looked down upon; here they have come into their own; their rate of pay is averaged at 22s 6d per d'ay. By jove! many a time I wished I had been a carpenter instead of a bank clerk; and it is right, Dad. These men are skilled, engaged in constructive work, and should/ be entitled to a high rate of pay. ,■ ■

"As one of our New Zealand members, of Parlaiment pointed out the other day, the tendency of education is to turn out clerks and others who will not •do the hard work •of the world. The skilled workman, who is •not afraid of working with his hands, and ill do really hard work if necessary, is the man who is wanted just, now. The drift of modern education is to turn out \a vast number of would-be administrators * and few workmen.

. "In the newspapers which you. send to me are advertisements usually by officers who want work of any description, and will go anywhere. I know several engineers in the North Island. I sometimes wonder if the advertisers would accept a job making roads, in the back country or shovelling shingle in a gravel pit! It would do them lots of good; and if they went the right way about it they would soon save a little money. If they told their relatives in England, though, that they were going to New Zealand to shovel shingle their relatives would think they were slightly unbalanced. There is not much romance in hard, uninteresting work. It ha s to be done, though, and they would be better off than in England, immeasurably bettei off, and they would not lose caste here. "The type of immigrant we are now getting is often the wrong type—he hangs round the towns and growls.* There are faults on both sides: the New Zealander is jealous and the newcomer is suspicious. The position is difficult; but hard work will overcome it."