A REMARKABLE PROTEST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9041, 28 January 1908, Page 4

A REMARKABLE PROTEST.

A telegram which we publish' in another column respecting the attitude of the workers towards the immigration policy of the Government will be read with general interest, though perhaps- not with general satisfaction. It shows Labour in an aggressively selfish or singularly fatuous aspect. The Council of the Canterbury Trades and Labour organisations has agreed to protest against any scheme of immigration by the Government, because "men and women, in our factories are unable to obtain; constant employment," and further, "because it would be unjust to the workcra of the dominion and unjust to the immigrants, who would have to compete- with our own fellow-workers for the right to live by work, thereby reducing wages and prejudicing national tonditions." It has been decided to refer the matter to all the Trades Councils in the dominioni and to request them to bring the subject under the notice of the affiliated unions; and a commitee has be?n set up to draft a letter to the British papers concerning the conditions of the Libour market in New Zealand. It is to be hoped the committee will forward a few numbers of the "Journal" of the Labour Department with the letter, so that both sides of the question may be placed before the British public. Nothing the Labour Councils could do could be more illogical and injudicious than to attempt to restrict immigration of a suitable class; and it cannot be.said bulk of those who have of late arrived from the Old Country are in any way undesirable comers. All reports show theta to be a /me body of m-*n and women calculated to make a valuable addition to our population. This proposed restriction of immigration may be in the temporary interests of Labour; but it can only ■ be temporary, and is certainly not in the inter-, ests of the dominion. ' What this country needs more than anything' else is population, and the stay of population means, ultimate commercial and industrial stagnation, or something worse. In its zeal ior the interests of the worker, the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council is aiming at that which would bring about the very result it seeksjto obviate. Our industries—especially the'agricultural and manufacturing—cannot be carried on without an ample supply of labour, and at the present moment both farmers ind

manufacturers throughout the dominion are hampered for lack of workers. The logical conclusion of the stand now being taken by the representatives of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Unions would be that those only who are now in the dominion should carry on the industrial pursuits of New Zealand, so that they may be able to secure all their demands. They do not see in their blindness, or will not see in their selfishness, that progress must soon be barred if they got their way. New Zealand is capable of providing for five times its present population. It may be a very long time indeed before it even doubles its population, but every batch of immigrants such as those who of recent months have come to our shores must be a decided acquisition to the dominion. Every one of those immigrants has already been absorbed, and yet the cry is, and will continue to be, for more—outside of trade and .labour organisations. An old pruverb runs—"The more the merrier; the fewer the better cheer." We hold by the first half of the maxim; the trades unions—of Canterbury afr any rate—swear by the latter half. It is to De hoped better counsels will prevail among the workers generally, when the matter comes to be considered by the whole of the Trades and' Labour Councils of the dominion.