The Daily News. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26. ADVISERS TO THE GOVERNMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 26 February 1907, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26. ADVISERS TO THE GOVERNMENT.

it is trxtrcraely diilieult to tin' political importance ol' this various somi-poiitical bodies in tnis culony. There are perhaps more bodies of men presuming to lia\e ellect.ve resubs on tin' of tin' country, in >iett' Zealand, llian in any other country in the world. Conferences are commoner

than potato-plague. Conferences are very ewceLleiii things if the subjects

the conferences belcve themselves capable of discussing luive any real bcuelicial effect Oil the body politic. As

a general tiling conferences oif various scmi-pol tieal bodies iii New Zealand really try to usurp tnc liinct.ous o: Parliament. It is a peculiarity of tl»' politics of New Zealand that die Parliament, should a,cc.J[>t t lie advice o. any body whatsoever, unless I'ai I ainent really believes that the men composing any seiui-polit ieal body arc represent eg "any elas.- of tli.' eoiiinuini.y thai is suffering under a disab.lty. Thai any semi-political body -hoiii i presume 1" not only threaten the w.tndraival of support to any pi.l t cian wliu does not promise to take ta.'ii views of political matter.-, is deplorable. That any body, as ill a recent case of ! a deputation waiting on the Minister of Labour, should presume to threat , en that .Minister with tile loss i.f his position is sluv.k ng in its absurdity.

The Trades and Labour Conference to be held in Dunediu ill March has lost no time in telling the country of the matters it intends to discuss. T.ic l'lesa Associat.on, over-estimating the importance of this body, is as ready to disseminate the news of the proposed advice this body will give to Parliament as if the Trades and Labour Council were Parliament itself. The Trades and Labour Council is, of course, representative only of some town workers. \V hat, ejl'ect the proposed advice ito the to raise the poll-tax o;u Chinamen to ,151000 may have on tile Pari anient cannot be foreseen, lnit, it may be deeded that if the Parliament, of New Zealand is ready lo accept its orders from tiie Trades ami Labour Council, it isn't the Parliament a democratic country has any use for. if ou the other hand, Parliament is dignified enough to take no notice of the shrieking of these semi-political Boards o't Advice, it follows that Parliament won't, touch the Chinese question, bemuse it won't be bullied into aequies. cenco with a few persons who take every opportunity to knock oil' worV to discuss matters that can only reasonably be discussed by tnese semi political bodies, if robbed of their political significance. Nobody denier

that the time is ripe to exclude till Chinaman from New Zealand, for instance, but Parliament is not likely to take its orders from the Trades and Labour Council ou tho subject. It is clearly evident that the Mongolian is a menace, and Parlament knows it without having any instruct ions to abate the menace, from bodies who always exaggerate their political importance and whose importance is always exaggerated by the press.

It is a difficult matter for the outsider to„ ascertain whether this country is governed by Parliament, or liy one of half-a-dozen organisations which give busheLs Off advice gratis every 'year, cause infinite trouble and cost a lot of money either to the people they misrepresent or tho country generally. Ju the name of common ,sense, what has the Trades and Labour Council got to do with immigration of people from the old World to the hackblocks or New Zealand? The Trades and Labour Council* are going to give the (Jovernmenl some instructions on this important matier next month, an i are going In say something ijuite ,-eJbJi. Th» i y want only immigrants who are liUed by previous occupation to •.[>> on the laud, meivly because an inllux of >U»lie>d town-workers is thought by the Trades and Labour Councils likely to interfere w-tli their own e-peciat ]«dw, It is true enough, as hie Chief Clerk of the Luhour Department said the ot- : her day. thai the immigrant who has been a clerk want- to go fanning, and the farmer wants a job in a. bank or a grocery >tore, bill the fact st II remains that the Trades and Libi ur Council* dc-dre to bu'ld a wall round . tlieir particular pve-.erve. r i" don't mind how many peoi.de g t > nilu the hackblocks, so long as they don't.

Jt is a remarkable I'acl that a very large number of men in tliis country who have made a success of their lives, changed their niethuJ of earning theii livlihood as soon as t!ioy arrived in this country. The most outalaiiiling example of this ean be observed in I hi' life of New Zealand's most, remarkable man —the late Mr Seddon. Under tiie Trades and Labour Councils' instructions to J'aiiiameiit Mi' fieddon wmMu" have been encouraged to cmne lo Ne v I Zealand, because be, boing au engineer, would come to the country and put a Trades and Labour Council unionlabelled engineer out of a job, The fact that Mr Seddon left bis engineering behind Jam al 11 nine ii»ir l tookf whatever turned up is but one of thousands of similar cases. Who shall say that there arc not clerks who iiavo become the best kind of farmers'! W'r know of bootmakers "who have got together good paying dairy-herds, (jovernmeift servants who have made a "do'' uf sheep farming, barristers who liave taken to the bush and slogged out a good home in tiie wilderness, and sailors who have become noted for Uie quality of the horses they bred. A large proportion of the men who come to New Zealand come because Ihey are not sil ted in the occupation they, have followed at Home. Tiie foundation nf all success is application. The'bushboy become;, a leading lawyer—we could quote examples for all our illustrati'in^—tiie successful graduate becomes a pastoralist, and the Trades ami Labour Councillor becomes adviser to the Universe.

In all the colonies the great men who | have made names for themselves changed their occupation as soon aa they arrived ill the colonics One of tile most outstanding figures in colonial politics — the late Sir Henry I'arkcs—was an ivory turner at Home. The Trades and Labour Council would have prohibited iiis landing iu Australia' because hci might oust a Trades and Labour Councils' union-labelled ivory turner. Yet.

Parkes became a shepherd, and, us fai us one eau gather, never turned anv ivory thereafter. The man of what ever grade who conies to tin; colonic oxpeeU to "rough it.' 3 The man win rough.-. it i.> the best man the eountn ha.s when once that man settles «.U>\vi into his proper groove. l)n the sub ject of preference tu unionists' whic! tiie Trades and Labour Councils wil counsel tiie (lovernmeiit to giant al round, the Councils have a far bette ! chance of being created peers of tin realm or archbishops. Jn this eoji neefion let us examine the slalemen »>f the Minister /or Labour, who a lev days ago. wfts insulted by n deputa'fcioi of unionists, who strenuously objcntoi to the Government appointing lioii-nn ioniMs to necessary Covermm-iii positions. The Minister said moist de ci*ivifly tha:t' the Government w'o'al give work to whomsoever it though fii. unionist or iion-unionisl 4 and woul not be dictated to. It is going to b dictated to in .March at Duucdin—an it. will probably toko no notice of ih Trades and Labour Councils. Wh should if; Ale the Trades and L:i hour Councils bodies of irresponsibl persons, pu-hing ail they know for les work and moiv wages or are they Par Itamei't? Parliament, why is Ihor< u Ward Government y Why anything besides Trades and Labour Councils, to run us?