MOVING TOWARD TOWNS
CHRISTCHURCH ~~ The position of the Maori people in New Zealand society is becoming of increasing concern to socialists. There is a tendency for the Maoris to move, at an ever faster rate from the rural areas, where for generations they have been leading a semicommunal existence, to the towns. .
When they arrive, they are not socially or academically oducated to cope with a commercial and urban way of life. Thus they inevitably converge -- almost as an entire race -- into the working class, Nor do they usually enter the ranks of the proletariat as skilled tradesmen; they come as unskilled labourers,
Receiving, generally, the lowest wage rates for such work, they can afford only the cheapest housing, This makes for a tendency, which, while not yet pronounced, is still perceptible, towards the creation of “ghettoes. woo,
The Labour party's solution for this problem is decentralisa~ tion of industry, it being the intention to provide employment for the Maoris in the countryside so that they do not have to move to the towns to find jobs. So
Such a solution is, however, inpracticable, not: neve ly because it would consolidate the present isolation of the Maori and reinforce his social separateness as a race, but also on economic grounds, The small decentralised industries the Labour party envisages could not conceivably operate on the scale necessary to make ‘them efficient... This applies whether these industries are intended to be capitalist or socialist -- and it is unlikely that the Labour party is proposing the latter. As at the moment,.37 per cent of New Zealand's factories employ less than six workers, and this situation of industrial underdevelopment is hardly one in’ which decentralisation should be encour aged.
What is needed is state establishments and workers oontrol of large industries, as this would encourage the class consciousness which the workers must develop : as a prerequisite to inaugurat ton of a socialist society,
mJ 4m
FRIAS WINS RELEASE FROM PRISON
Ismael Frias, a Peruvian Trotskyist, and Oswaldo Walderramane and Alejandro Vento, two leaders of the metal workers union, who were arrested in Lima May 29, apparently in connection with strike activities of the metal workers and bank employes, have been