The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 12. IMPORTING BOYS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 79, 12 July 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 12. IMPORTING BOYS.

There was a suggestion before Parliament sat to import a few English boys into this country. If these English boys had been Bengal tigers the mere mention of them could not have caused greater political consternation. The politician sees these poor suffering youngsters "exploited" by dreadful farmers; the adult person imagines that the youths are going to upset the labor market in the Dominion; and "the most interesting discussion of the session" has taten place about fifty boys. One Parliamentarian mentioned that if the boys "fell J into the hands-of some farmers" their labor would be "exploited." If there are exploiters of labor in New Zealand ,they exploit the labor of their own children or the children of any other New ZeaJander. They have not been waiting for a number of years for a few English youths on whom to fasten their claws. Also, if there are many of the exploiters referred to by Mr. T. E. Taylor in New Zealand, they should be dealt with vigorously for the protection of their own children and the children of New Zealanders. If the Government imports the boys and allows them to be overworked and badly treated it is a poor receive strong young English lives for fear of competition, it is a more foolish country than it has ever been credited with Jbeing. Evidently it is a more important matter to prevent the country being "flooded" with fifty English boys than with five hundred Chinese or a thousand Austrians. Britain's problem is that she has too many people. The problem of Australasia is that it has too few. If the colonies erect a barrier I which will keep out the overplus of the Old Country, they begin to commit national suicide; It is already proved that the natural increase of New Zealanders is so absurdly low that they cannot hope to populate the country, and that if the country is not helped from outside it will not be strong enough to strike a blow when a blow needs striking. That a few boys are going to alter this is, of course, absurd, 'but the principle of antagonism to these boys is the same insane principle that guides adults in alleging that there are not enough "jobs" to go round in New Zealand. The greater part of New Zealand is a howling wilderness crying out for men, for development, and for energy. Many members of Parliament speak entirely from their own point- of view as ironrounders, or secretaries of industrial unions, or accountants and such-like. The national standpoint is never seen. Some men—and youths—come to this country who are absolute failures. Every country has its percentage of its leaners, its loafers, and its unreproductive class. One member of Parliament who puts in his whole life outside Parliament as a secretary for city workers mentioned that it wrong for the Government to "lend its assistance to the detriment of agricultural workers" by importing a few boys into a country that has millions upon millions of acres of land into which a plough has never entered. The real fact is that New Zealand can absorb all the agricultural labor that Britain or any other white man's country can send for many, many years, if all the peoplfe who are willing to work land can be supplied with it. The future of the country does not rest with the ironfounders or the trades union leaders, with the professional politician who makes stertorous comments in a debate, or with Ministers who heave volumes of statistics into Hansard-. First and last and all the time, this country depends for its existence on the number of people who can be induced to go on the land. "New Zealand for the New Zealanders" is the most suicidal cry that can be raised. We want people, even if a proportion are wasters, for absolute eventless milk* and-honev prosperity will sooner or later take all the grit out of any country. The politician who sees a "problem" in fifty English bovs should be carefully examined by two competent medical men.