AM AFTER-WAR PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 June 1918, Page 2

AM AFTER-WAR PROBLEM.

WILL SCOTLAND'S BOYS GO OVERSEAS? By Hugh Frasor (of N.T.) in Weekly Scotsman. "I think I'll go to the Colonies after !_'j»war, Digger. From what you have ■ „• me, I can see a fellow has a bot- -" chance out there." The speaker .j., i I ask you to imagine is a "Jock," , ..ng, handy-looking, ami fresh-com-jple>cioned, and ho lias spoken to a New i.ealauder, or to an Australian, who, in the soldier's parlance, are known as "diggers-" And the scene, is anywhere in France to-day, where you will find a "Jock" and a '"digger" fraternising, as they do in a genuinely brotherly way; for they understand one another.

So many times have I heard these words that I have come to the conclusion that after the war mafiy "Jocks" will turn their thoughts to the Colonies and the prospects that exist out there for a young man. This feeling, I don't suppose, will be confined to Scotland's lads—the call will be felt by many men in England, Wales, and Ireland—but the reason wsiy I think the majority will come from Scotland can be suppliedwhen someone can explain the brotherly understanding wibich exists between a "Jock" and an Australian or New Zealander. If a New Zealander is going "over the top" he is always cheered to know the "Jocks" are with him; if he is in hospital ho will most likely chum up with a "Jook"; you will see them strolling Princes Street together, because they I have common interests, and the Colonial has come to regard as incomplete a I holiday which does not embrace some of the many attractive parts of Scotland. There is something aibout Scotland and its people which the Colonial understands and appreciates, and, in return, the "Jock" appears to understand a Colonial better t'haff a "Tommy" does. INTERESTED IN THE COLONIES, And out of this friendship the "Jock" has heard all aibout the Colonies, and he has become more than casually interested. This intimate companionship has led to the sowing of ideas in the minds of the "Jocks/' and the fruit of those ideas is going to be that many a boy from Scotland will go abroad after the war. I cannot say how Scotland would look upon such an emigration on any large scale, but as a New Zealander who knows his country, and who knows and admires tile average "Jock," I can say that if the war leaves New Zealand under tike happy and prosperous economic conditions it has had for a great many years past, a gradual flux of desirable workers would distinctly he in tbe best interests of both New Zealand and the emigrant. Normal conditions would not permit anything in the nature of a rush to New Zealand; it would doubtless prove disastrous to everyone concerned, but a gradu&i How of desirable people would be permissible. I have used the word "desirable" a couple of times, and it cannot be impressed too strongly. HEARTY SPENDING DECEPTIVE.

This is what I mean. If the "Jock" is coming out to New Zealand because he has found his Colonial soldier pals have plenty of money to spend and bocause he has hastily judged from this that it must be easy to get money out there, he is going to find his mistake and make the painful discovery when it is too late—when he has "burnt his boats" at home and is in the new land New Zealand, like any other new country, want 3 men who are going to work for the good money they will find, not men with the idea that the money can be picked up without much energy in return. And don't be misled By appearances, "Jock!" If I have got more money than you in Princes Street, today it is because I am on leave from France, and my fivo shillings a day has enabled me to save £3O or £4O during my twelve months out in France, and I'm not going to save it for a day that might not come. To-morroW is too uncertain in this game we are at now, and, to use a Colonial expression, "I'll have a good time while my luck is in." We don't throw money about like this in peace days, but we get good money for hard work under much better conditions than I think is possible in a country where tlhe avenues of employment strike me as being more or less overcrowded.

THREE QUALIFICATIONS And this is what I mean by a desirable man: A young man possessing the best capital for the Colonies, and that is, not money, but good health, energy, and enthusiasm. If he has these three qualities (and they are exactly what the average "Jook" possesses), he will find in New Zealand a good climate, work with good money, and he will be able to make his home sooner and, I venture to suggest, under better general conditions than in the Old Country. No one can persuade me that it is the ultimate destiny of a young man to arrive in his late thirties and find he is still working from morning till night (ami for someone else) and that he is still single because his means will not allow him to make a home of his own. It is true this also happens in the Colonies in many cases, but I am sure it will not occur to the emigrant who is "desirable" and has that capital which is made up of the three qualities 1 have just mentioned. A YOUNG COUNTRY'S PROSPECTS. A s a young country with enormous areas being yearly opened up by roads and railways and gradually developed so that comfortable homesteads take the place of raw country, it can readily be seen that New Zealand offers splendid prospects to a man with grit (and the "Jock" has it.) But I dont want the "Jock" to read these lines as he would some particularly attractive Government pamphlet and imagine that he has only to wait and the little farm (which will be all Ws own some day) will spring up from the wilds without effort. "If that is your idea of New Zealand, stay at home," I would, tell my "Jock" friend; but if you are prepared to work, come out and I'll guarantee you'll never regret it." And I would tell "Jock" tbis, "My father landed in New Zealand a young man, and met conditions incomparable with what they are to-day. He is reaping the benefit of his toil, and I have a very conrfortaible home and most of the good things of life." The ''Jocks" who are coming out to us after the war can do the same thing that lots of our fathers have done, and with much better faci'iti"v the road the "Jock" will have

to travel will not Ibe nearly so rough. Over in France I have had many i yarn with a "Jock." Frankly, I like him better than the average "Tommy." He strikes me as being more broadminded; he is more like ourselves, I think I can say that the "Jock" likes us And that is precisely why I think the "Jocks" are going to come our way after the war. And in conclusion, "You need not necessarily .bring a wife with you, "Jock" because there are plenty of splendid girls in New Zealand, and you can return the compliment a lot of our chaps are paying to the Scotch girls." But this is going to another topic.