FINDING WORK FOB THE UNEMPLOYED IN 1840.

Otago Witness, Issue 2069, 19 October 1893, Page 12

FINDING WORK FOB THE UNEMPLOYED IN 1840.

During the course of his lecture at the meeting of the Otago Institute last Tuesday, Dr Hocken introduced the following extract from a letter written by Mr J. R, C4odley to a friend of his in the Biitish Parliament. Mr Godley, as is well known, was a statesman of remarkable ability, and was also one of the chief founders of the Canterbury settlement His remarks refer to a subject which, in the present day, is of great interest to every member of the community, and are, perhaps, even more applicable now than when Mr Godley wrote them : —

"The second point regards the employment by the New Zealand Company of a cerlain number of labourers permanently, for the sal a of gii ing ■them ( mployment — that is, not because they are wanted, but because they are in distress. Under all circumstances and everywhere I believe this kind of national workshop to be a very bad method of relieving dibtrebs, but in a colony like Otago, where wages are so high as to paralyse agricultural enterprise, it is not only unnecess.Hry but detrimental and absurd in the highest degree. It is true tuat on the charity works the labourers only got 33 a day, whereas private employers give 3n fid to *H besides rations (shepkerds £50 a year) ; bub the difference is compensated, in the labourer's eyes, by the circumstance limb in one c;ise he is paid for working aud in the olbxr for only making believe to work-in fact, for sLanding with his hands in his pockets and his pipe in his mouth. It is not only on account of the direr!; expenses to which these abuses bubjeet th» company that I deplore them ; a far worse ellujl is the impression, of bad rnanagemcwit aud jobbery which tLxy produce iv Iho miucL oi LLo colo-

carriage horses the balance. Public interest was manifested to the exbt-ut of between 300 and 400 spectators at the usual shilling a he:td, aud though a considerable number of animals were offered after the parade, no public sale was effected. The highest bid mi.de was 150gs for Duncan Gillies, which was declined, and the animal passed in.

The weather continues splendid, and sowing has been concluded in the district, with farm work geneially well advanced.