MORE JOBS THAN MEN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3519, 5 July 1920, Page 8

MORE JOBS THAN MEN.

A CO ENTRY FOR WORKERS.

CHANGES FOR THE “NEW POOR.” In au article contributed ]to Tire Sunday Chronicle (Manchester) by “Red Gauntlet” who served with the N.Z.E.F.), it is mentioned that in New Zealand the cost of living has increased only 37 per cent, since 1914, and the writer hopes this fact will rouse the interest of many people, almost in despair at steadily-soaring prices -in England, says the Evening Post’s London “But it is by no means the only argument in favour of New Zealand (he says), for our smallest Dominion has more natural advantages than any other portion of the British Empire. New Zealand supplies herself with every necessary foodstulf except sugar. Up in the extreme north they feed the pigs on poaches, and no one ever dreams of eating margarine—there’s butter for everyone. The towns arc built on generous lines; there is no overcrowding; streets are .wide and spacious gardens are everywhere, slums are unknown. And. for their size. New Zealand towns [are far more up-to-date than ours.

“As for the scenery—well, it's difficult to forget. > . But New Zealand is not a lotus land; and the amiable

l on for is nor wanted; among men, muscle is valued a lot more than smug respectability. The New Zealander who works in an office is seldom proud |of the fact. I remember when I was serving as a “digger’ 7 in the ranks of the New Zealand Division, it was a grave- insult to say to a man: ‘I suppose you were a clerk iu civil life.’ The man they want is the fellow whose eye is clear and whose muscles arc taut, and who’s not afraid of hard, manual labour. This sort of man will find no lack of work. . . There are far more jobs than there are men.” HOW TO WIN THROUGH. “If you don’t - like your job, chuck it. ‘Hump your swag.’ and take to the road till you find another. It may be felling bush, it may be putting up fences on a sheep run, or doing navvy’s work on the roads. Bluff your boss that you know "'1 about everything, keep your eyes open, and ask your more experienced mates —you’ll win t'n rough. “i know a man in New Zealand who lor some months made an excellent living as a piano ( -tuuor, armed solely with unlimited confidence, a screwdriver. a tuning-fork, and a total ignorance of music. !His method was to go round to outlying farms—thirty or forty miles from a tov, n, some of them

--and ask if they wanted the piano ( titled. Of course they did. He entered. removed the front of the piano, am! spent a happy hour striking his tuning-fork, and playing a few chords. He then screwed up the instrument, and informed file missus’ that the pin no was limed. His reward was an

excel.out meal, and a sum varying from Hn shillings to a pound.” “BTICK IT AND GRUMBLE.”

Redgauntdet ■ says lie started off ab.-.o.utely no knowledge, made a comfortable living as a bricklayer, a docker, a farm labourer, and a deckband, before leaving New Zealand to fight. He continues; “There must be numbers of people in England to-day living rather dreary lives, and doingwork they hate, who long for a new country, new opportunities, and a life in the blowy open. But 100 many of them go on fnrtlmr than longing; tliev' wii! quot" Ror-ow. and sigh for ‘the wind oji (lie hearth*: but they will s ti 1 1 go on living their shackled lives, and grumbling at their lot. But it‘s extraordinarily difficult to persuade anyone of the flimsiness of his prison walls; the ‘stick it. and grumble* att.i--lmll‘ !"iwails. as I’m afraid it alwavs "•ill. The New Zealander's boast fliat l! " lives in ‘(i r '* s count"* is no light One. ’ ’ |