A YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER "ABROAD."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8268, 23 October 1906, Page 6

A YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER "ABROAD."

Ttie following letter written in the somewhat typical and Jargely misunderstood language, of the New Zealander, has been reoeived by a Mastertou resident from a young uolonial engineer at present seeking experience in the Old Country. "I cannot say much for England, "judging from what I have seen so far, as tbey are a long way behind New Zealand in many neapeofß, I notably in the oleanly handling of foodstuffs. The Centrai Meat Marketrin London, where most of the meat used in the oity is handled, is a filthy place that would not be tolerated ia New Zealand 24 hours; when it was last washed and disinfected tradition even does not any. From what I saw there I am quite satisfied in my own mind that a lot of New Zealand mutton is sold as English, and the labels with the vet's, signature is put on. to inferior meat to sell it as New Zealand, and poor-looking stuff soae of it was, but 1 suppose anything is though!: good enough to feed the denizens of the South and Eastern London, who are by far more uncivilised than the Maori over was, and among whom the drunkenness, ' espeoially the wumen, is something appalling No wonder that the percentage of imbecile nsnne has more than doubled in 30 years atnong them: and how any nation that pretends to call itself civilised can tolerate such a state of affairs God alone knows. It passed the comprehension of a number of us Colonials who met in London and compared notes. From what 1 have been able to gather since I have been here Australia and New Zealand have got a bad name in the financial world, so perhaps the New Zealand Government will have trouble in raising the- wind before long. They advertised in quite a number of papers some time ago for 1,000 navvies for the railways, and from the reputation that a number of them put up on tne ship on the way out to New Zealand, it seems to fce a first rate way of importing a lot of England's scum that the colony would be better without. If the truth were told enquirers at the High Commissioner's office regarding the prospects of tradesmen in New Zealand I think very few good men or bad either for the matter of that would be tempted tft leave England. The engineering trade is very brisk in England at present, and many, in fact most firms are driving at top spfced, working three shifts and only stopping their machines for twelve hours on Sundays. All the principal gas anS oil engine makers and locomotive builders are that full of orders that they will not guarantee delivery of large engines for six months, and in many instances they are doubling the capacity of their works, and then the difficulty < is to get men. Large orders are on hand nt tbe present time from America for high-grade steel and machine tools. In one workshop I saw where gas and oil engines ar« being specialised in they were more than trebling the capacity of their works, and in another which did tbe same last year, I shw a number of oil engines under construction for submarines for the Italian Navy, and alongside in the building yard were seven torpedo boat destroyers of 250 tons displacement each, yet in each of these small hulls were being placed engines greater than those of the 23,000-ton liner Amerika, of the Uamburg-Amenka line in power, so that they woulcl be goers, capable of steaming from Auckland to the Thames in a little over an hour. The idea of Yankee competition troubling them much is laughed at by most firms here. They say let the Yankee put in his cheap stnff, ic is only a good advertisement for our better class goods in tbe long run. The motor trada is of enormous dimensions here now, and is growing fast, and provides grand sport for the police oatnbine scorchers and then perhaps they get Jiold of somebody's driver and fine 1 him £3 or <£s, perhaps the owner of the car has an income of £I,OOO or more per week and so he can afford to indulge iu his sport. If the fines were made ten per cent, of tbe owners inoo:ne from his previous year's income tax returns —or a years Government board and residence—for the owner, it would be of some use having regulations with regard to furious driving."