IMMIGRATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 32, 28 January 1908, Page 2

IMMIGRATION.

SENSELESS OPPOSITION OF TRADE UNIONISTS.

Per Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. The Canterbury Trades and Laboi Council are strongly opposed to the immigration policy of the Government, and at the meeting of the Council held on Saturday the following motion was unanimously agreed to:—That the Council strongly protest against any scheme of immigration by the Government, on the grounds that men and women in our factories are unable to obtain anything like constant employment. Further, we consider it would not only be unjust to the workers of the Dominion, but unjust to the immigrants who would have to compete with our fellow-work-ers for the right to live by work, thereby reducing wages and prejudicing national conditions." It was resolved to refer the matter to all Trade Councils in the Dominion, and to request them to bring the subject under the notice of the affiliated unions. A committee consisting of the Hon. John Barr and Messrs E. Howard and II T. Bailey was set up to draft a letter and forward same to the newspapers of the United Kingdom concerning the conditions of the labor market in the Dominion.

The views of Mr J. E. March, the Government immigration agent, who, of course, is an authority on the work of his Department, are not, those of the Trades Council. Mr March left for Wellington on Saturday night to meet the immigrants who are expected to arrive on Wednesday by the Corinthic,

and in conversation with a reporter he said that from previous experience he was quite satisfied that they would all be placed without difficulty. There was a great demand, especially in the North Island, for laborers on farms and dairies, and a large proportion of the newcomers j were laborers who filled the requirements in that direction.