The Auckland Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1892.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 297, 14 December 1892, Page 4

The Auckland Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1892.

For t_9 cause that laekj malatutct, For tho mans that needs wiiatanw, For t_o fntnro in the distance, lad the rood that -. c can 00.

I The utterances of the Hon. Mr Sed. don during his recent interviews with deputations from the Christchurch unemployed, seem to have been characterised by his usual vigour and good sense. There is no occasion on which a display of these qualities is more necessary than when a Cabinet Minister has to deal with the always doleful and sometimes unreasonable, com. plaints of men who are out of work Mr Seddon at such times does not waste his breath in maudlin sympathy. His manner is often described as biusque; but, when confronted with real distress, no one can charge him with displaying other than genuine interest. The truth is, that Mr Seddon, like every man with a good moral backbone, has a great abhorrence of cant. He can easily distinguish the whine of the loafer, who is ever clamouring for work and never willing to do any, from the appeal of the industrious applicant who is eager to take the roughest job rather than become a recipient of charity. He has ever proved himself as ready to snub the one as assist the other. Mr Seddon's experiences al Christ" church show clearly the need of a firm hand in dealing with the unemployed. There has been a good deal of talk lately about the number of men out of work in that city. The Mayor has been interviewed, and the Minister of Works communicated with, and a commotion kept up generally not at all warranted by the facts of the case. It appears that when the Minister arrived only fifty men could be mustered who professed to want work. It might have been thought that during the hay-making season, with farmers requiring extra hands, most of these men would find little difficulty in obtaining a job. Some of them, however, seem lo have been under the impression, that they had only to wait upon the Minister to be relieved of any further exertions of their own in procuring employment. Mr Seddon, according to his wont, talked to them in a manly, straightforward way. They probably were surprised to learn that the Government does not consider finding work for the unemployed its primary duty. They were told distinctly that the principle of not spending money on other than reproductive works.would be strictly adhered to. It was also made clear to them that the Government, so far from having the purse of Fortunatus, had very little to spend even on works that if completed would ensure good returns.

The sequel to the interview shows that the unemployed contingent, like every other aggregate body, is made up of bad and good elements. It is the old tale of the tares and wheat growing together. Mr Seddon promised the men work in the North Lsland, and, in order to facilitate matters, offered the additional inducement of a free passage. If we had not learned wisdom by experience, we should have predicted, that men, representing themselves to be in the last stages of destitution, would have eagerly closed with the offered terms; but of the whole number, however, only one-half turned up. The other 25 were so little impressed with any sense of obligation that they did not think it worthwhile to see_ the agent and vouchsafe any explanation of their conduct. Common decency should have suggested such a course, Whether the men had any valid reasons for remaining behind or not. It is not surprising that with such experiences a Minister soon learns to gauge the value of a good deal of clap-trap to which he is treated. Nothing' tends more to discredit the cause of the unemployed than the unworthy loafers who lose no opportunity of identifying themselves with it. These men do alfthe clamour, but have no intention of doing any hard work. If by any chance they accept a job, they foment discontent amongst the quiet workers. The 25 worthies will probably continue to hang about the Cathedral Square in Christchurch, whining about the wrongs of the "poor working man," while their families become a drag upon the Charitable Aid Board or cadge what they can from the Ladies' Benevolent Society.

Mr Seddon was not only requested to find work for the unemployed, but to induce the Railway Commissioners to grant a reduction of fares to the families of men who accepted employment in distant parts of the colony. The argument is rhat a man is put to extra expense if his work lies in one place and. he has to provide a separate maintenance for his family in another. There would be more force in this reasoning if the work supplied to the men were of a permanent character, but unless it is understood that the Government is to go on finding a succession of jobs for its employees, the work on wbich most of the men are at present engaged, will only last a few months, and in some cases not more than a few weeks. Are the Railway Commissioners to allow workmen's families to travel at low rates each time the men make a flitting, either to secure Government work at a distance or to look for a job on their own account ? For too much stress is laid upon the hardships ot men employed on Government works being

separated from their families for a short time. Such exigencies are inseparable from life in a new country. Surveyors, commercial travellers, sailors, shearers, and a host of others, when pursuing their ordinary avocations, have to leave their wives and children tor months at a time. No one thinks if miners, for example, have to.wander from one part of the country to another in quest of employment, that their families, even if poorly off, should be allowed to travel at cheap rates. The Commissioners are willing to allow the families of Christchurch unemployed who have accepted work at a distance to travel at half-rates, on condition that the money is recouped, but they very properly object to grant this concession in the case of men sent out by the Labour Bureau. They argue, justly, that if these men receive tho highest market rate of wages, they have no ground to claim privileges, from which the ordinary working man is exempted. The Commissioners naturally look at the matter from a revenue standpoint, and we think the concessions to which they agree are as liberal as, with a due regard to the public interest, they are justified in making, or as any reasonable man has a right to expect.