gold for these Tongans
p. 13 · Read in the full issue
No NZ streets paved with gold for these Tongans
From an Auckland correspondent
While much essential work remains undone in Tonga, many Tongans who have gone to New Zealand under various work schemes are unemployed, and likely to remain that way. The position was bad enough in January for an appeal to go out from a welfare worker to help to hnd work for the unemployed Tongans. 1 o many Tongans, and to those they leave behind. New Zealand is an El Dorado. Tongans go there to work to earn enough money to provide many of the good things of life for those at home. But in Auckland, where so many Polynesians congregate, the work is not available, or was not available a month ago.
It may have been a case of bad timing.. About 100 arrived on New Years Eve in the Arcadia, just betore the new NZ immigration regulations for Tongans came into force.
Ihis scheme provides that the Tongan Government is the sole recruitmg agent for workers required in New Zealand.
Tongans who arrived before the January 1 deadline come into the category of visitors on three months’ permits. If they want work they have to find it themselves. Their permits do not guarantee employment, and, anyway, they have to go home at the end of three months.
One Of the reasons for the diffi-
culty in finding work was the annual closedown of factories, which starts just before Christmas and ends about mid-January.
Under the agreement between NZ and Tonga, which became effective on January 1, Tongans are allowed in for three months to work for specific employers. If employers agree, the permits may be extended for another three months, The number of the unemployed Tongans in December-January put a strain on Polynesian traditions of hospitality. Many of them are being cared for by friends and relatives, who do not ask for reimbursement, knowing that if they do, the un employed, when they find work and earn money, will have less to send home.
Those unable to find work can be provided with relief on emergency grounds of hardship, and become a charge on the New Zealand taxpayer.
Normally, 12 months’ residence is required before anyone can qualify for the dole.
But the prospect of unemployment does not worry Semisi Solo Tupou.
He was held recently in Addington prison, Christchurch, waiting deporta tion for the fourth time, when he went over the wall. He had been deported in 1966, 1972 and 1974.
• Page 35—Runaway Tongans.