The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1920. HOUSING AND IMMIGRATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3528, 15 July 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1920. HOUSING AND IMMIGRATION.

With which is i,ncorporated "The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

’[‘here are two aspects of Government policy which should have the prompt and earnest attention of every ta.xp-uyer in the Dominion, they :u'01.." notable influx of Asiatics end the systematie. iiuniigmition that has set in from Europe. Though agit-ators for cheap coloured labour, who we-.l'e fairly persistent. some time back, did not seem to ‘meet with much sympathy from the Government there. has been in steady stream of coloured peoples 81“ riving in this country which should not be continued if it is desired to nlainta.iu :1. white New Zealand,_ and avoid those. -niulti-coloured hells such as are already found in many large cities of the world. Nearly all the fruit business sognd much -of the gl'oG"‘ cry business in the -cities, and evenj in smaller towns, is in the hands Of‘; Asiatics. In the streets of We1li118"l ton there may daily be seen in every‘! locality, In<.lizl.n.-and Assyrian. vendors of I fruit and other commonly needed ticles. ‘These new "arrivals from Asia; do not -bring their women with the-m,3 hence itlhere are parts of the town where ,;..they congregate that “ere converted into grottos of "infamy of at sllpcrl:ttively menacing character. Very fewpof the coloured‘ arrivals will "do hard work, and, of course, none of our race will consent to work with them, the ‘result being they drift into cities and become the keepers of those danl <__>'<_-rs to public health and Well to 1111tionality, where the very weak-willed land the very dre-gs and scum of humankind wallow in a social corruption ‘ of tlrc midst ‘hideous and. revolting A character: If the powers that be willhave a submerged tenth let them keep it untainted with Asiatic colouring, for then some power to follow will have fl. rensonzl"bl£- chance of salving‘ it and wiping such a. nat'ionu‘l curse once more out of existence It has been demonstra‘te"d _'in .”x3l‘ito;in that ‘the submerged tenth was the making of British Governments; 'that it resulted from nepglect; that owing to want of housing room fliero came into existence the (loss houses where men, women, boys, girls and chieltlren nigh-tly stew in the most horrifying‘ morhl corruption; from p whence they wiilespread the red plague‘ tlii-ougliout, not only the city in which they exist, but. over the whole eonn.-3 try. Such blots on the social life of? :1 people, "it. is shown, arise from gov-‘ ernments" callous indifi'el'encc to the proper housing of the people, and what. ; is being enacted in this young conn,-.7 try"? There is not sufficieut housing; room at present -to properly house more i than two—thirds of the population andl yet men of all colours and from all; parts of the world are allowed to teem into the "Dominion to ‘enter into com—l petition for what housing there is. In Wiellingtori and elsewhere houses‘ are condemned to be destroyed as 100-‘ ing unfit ,fo1"l1um:1n habitation; dis-3 eussions on the subject take place by‘ City Councils, and their dilemma is; that they cannot destroy those menaces to public health because the flot.—3 stun and jetsnin ‘of hum2inii:_v— they shelter cannot be removed to houses that do not exist. And yet, as we have sa'id. there is n stezldy .<tre:nn of Asiutics coming into ‘lhe (‘.(|llllll‘_\' Ijvitlil the consent: of the G-overninent. The Snlvinlg of u white race is not without hope, but to retrieve that liybrid slougzli ‘\\'lll(’ll is coutnniiiiating lii;rl.il_v civilisml wliiie races from the pits of in~ funny into which they have i.lrit"ted beisnnse tlwre were no houses "in which in live alt-'-s"entl|v like rm] lmznz’-.n lieill_s:s, is e_x_ ll()]_)(‘l<‘.\'.< iinpossil»ilii_v. "But what ‘is gtiiiig to llztppen to the thou--sands of’ Britisli women and ch’ild:'en that "the (i()V(‘[‘lllllP.lll is l'H'iH;,’lllg ‘-0 L\’(_-w Zenlzisutl.’ The_\' are t-<>miil,<_:' out oi‘ u l3ritish i'ryiil;_: pun into 9. New Zeulund tire; (‘Ullllllg froni where tens of millions of money‘ are br‘lng-; spent in. solving the housing problem to where tliere is nothin_9; more than a lilful l'lnkm'inu' witli hmising the people, and \\'h:it is ;;'oin;;' to lmppen‘? The l.‘.:iti.<h tiovm-uirieni. the ’l.on«lon ('.'ollnty ('m:nvi]. nml other loo:-1l borliest have spent lIlll(‘ll money ,in linvingl un exlinustive 'i(ilV‘i-si'l,<_}::il‘i<)ii of ihol cause and cure of this 'i‘l'0lll)l(‘S()lll(3|l question, und it is .\‘l".'.‘~.ll9,‘(‘ that the? cmisensns of opinion is in i"n'v()llr ofl doing just the opposite to wlint is‘ l)eing done in New Zeulanul. The lirsti thing done was to provide cheap irn—l veiling so that workers could live oul—l side the centres of i:i<llisi.ry. l-Ifiortsi were Irnzule to get popuilzitiou morei. equally distributed; houses were erected in outlying districts, the Lourlonl Connt_v (‘ouncil spending‘ 'millions~ for the purpose many years before the} war. So far back as 1875 Britain had pussml 21 Workers’ Dwelling Act, which “'33 bf?’ 110 mctms 3 dead letter; workers’ trains amll»t‘r:;ms' running to and from London alone ran into ’th.ou,s.-

-ands daily, but. what is New Zealand doing The Government has sanctioned the erection of a miseral)ly inadequate number of houses, just enough to show insincerity in dealing with the question. Besides, it is imporfillg “IPOO times as many people as the Whole of the houses being built could possibly accommodate. Surely the alltllol‘ifiGS must be hoodwinking tllenlse;lVos into the belief or notion that the 111115505 of workers are not fu1lY“1i""’ t° “vhzht is taking place. It will be notechtliat the thousand immigrants just. i11'1‘1"1“g are. nearly all for the 131'S0 Cities? it may be said that they will eventually be spread over the \\~'ho.l'e country, but all experience for t.he last ten years is diametrically opposed to anything of the kind. The country dis‘ tricts are becoming shorter and >?llorter of labour while people are drifting off the land, and Whatever aeconm'l‘oElation cities can provide is being 11"‘ necessarily overtaxed. If there is in humane party in the present .lf’arlia.ment. it has :1 supreme du‘i;y to perform; if this country is verily governed by the people for the people that fact should be reflected in its triire of the people, in making a 'plfl<‘:‘ "~'ll’\‘-X"-‘ill every citizen, poor though he be, may have a place wherein to decently lay his head. It was found that half the manhood of Britain was unfit to take a part in defending the Empire through having no place wherein to live a healthy life, and owing to being inadequately fed. Once mo-re we repeat that the‘ Prime Minister of Britain publicly stated that Britain had‘ acted so inhumanely towards its workers that it had to bow itshead with shame in the presence of Turkey and Russia, and yet the -old policy of starvation and houselessness is being heartlessly followed, not so much in Britain as in the Dominions. Britain is rushing on :1 policy of housebuilding, and is urging population to emigrate. In New Zealand next to nothing tangible is being done to house present 'populati‘6n, while. tliousands more people are being brought in from Britain, and Asiatics are permitted to stream ‘in. almost incessantly, to compete for the altogether too few houses that are already indecently overcrowded. Unless some strong, compreifensivei measures are adopted to deal effectually with the housing and.-iinniigratéion problem this little crmntr_v. must have a submerged tenth, unsurpassed for hideousness and moral corruption in no other part. of the \vor:l‘d, for the, most degraded world liuman flotsam an(l._jetsam are at Tiberty to establish their hotbeds of crime, immorality and disease side by .~"idn ot’ the homes which shelter the mothers and children {who are to perpetuatte the British race in this Dominion.