The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ABE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1893.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 222, 19 September 1893, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ABE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1893.

for the canse that laoJia a3sista:icß, tfer tho irrong that needs rc3istaaco, For tlo future in tile distance, And tlio scoil that ira can tin.

We learn by a teiegram, published yesterday, that the unemployed difficulty is again cropping up in the South. The Mayor of Dunedin ha s informed the Premier that he has been waited upon by ioo men, who state that they are unable to obtain employ, ployment by their own unaided efforts' According to the Mayor's description' the applicants have two distinct points in their favour. They are able-bodied men, and are all anxious to obtain work. In these respects they compare favourably with many of their predecessors in the quest for Government employment. One of the difficulties that Ministers have hitherto experienced has been caused by the fact that many of the applicants complained of being physically incapable of performing such work as the Labour Bureau could provide. In some cases, no doubt, this was correct; but in others the will was wanting. It is a man's misfortune and not his fault if he is so puny that he cannot handle a shovel or wield a spade with effect; but a good many who had been loudest in their outcries showed none of that grit that leads a man of independent spirit to do his best even when his task is hard and uncongenial. Some men, when they found the employment offered consisted in bush-felling or road construction, preferred the "bread of charity to work with the accompaniments of sweating brow and aching hands. The Mayor adds as an additional incentive to the Government to take prompt action in the present instance, that many of the Dunedin applicants are in urgent need of immediate relief. The picture is not a pleasant one. With the steady progress the colony is makiDg it is unsatisfactory to find we have not reached that stage when every man, who is able and willing to work, can find it for himself. The local bodies in the South, too, appear to us to show an undue readiness to seek for Government assistance even when the unemployed difficulty presents itself on a very small scale. This was pointed out by the Minister for Labour a few months ago, when he was besieged by deputations in Christchurch. It was quite evident, too, from the dictatorial tone adopted at that time by the unemployed who were worked upon by a few professional agitators that they thought the Government would be bullied into acceding to all kinds of unreasonable demands through the fear of losing votes. There was a great deal of highblutin' about the power to " make and unmake" if Ministers did not find work for a number of applicants, many of whom were too lazy to make any vigorous effort to find it for themselves. The firm attitude of the Premier soon dispelled that illusion, and since the sharp rebuke he gave to a deputation at Wellington at the commencement of the session, the unemployed have learned that the Government, like Providence, acts upon the principle of helping those who help themselves. !We in Auckland have reason to coni gra-tulate ourselves that we have been j more fortunate than our Southern ', neighbours with regard to the steady i i employment of a great mass of workers, j I During the last few months, Auckland | ' alone of the chief cities in the colony j ' has escaped a demonstration of the i unemployed. We do not mean to ' imply that everyone has had full work. ' There are, we are aware, at the present 1 time many persons in our midst, especially those accustomed to clerical occupations, who are in want of billets, and as the conditions of colonial life become more complex, the competition for " genteel" employment must inevitably wax keener. The heavy claims upon the Charitable Aid Board, and the appeals made by Benevolent Societies, have reminded us, during the past winter, that there is a good deal of genuine poverty in the city, but we have had no crowds of unemployed urging their claims upon" our local bodies. The Mayor has not had to telegraph to the Premier that numbers of able-bodied men in Auckland were unable to find work. This, as everyone knows, is largely owing to the fact thai our gumtields in the North

form an outlet for our surplus poputa tion.

Viewed in this light we cannot too highly value the gift that Nature has bestowed upon this part ot the colony. The kauri gum industry is peculiarly our own, and, apart from revenue considerations, the gumfields afford scope for the energies of our working men far more efficient and desirable than could be furnished by any system ot Government relief works. In New Zealand, as in all the other colonies, politicians and reformers are agreed that the best way to ensure permanent prosperity is to .relieve the congestion of population in cities by "placing the people on the land." But this is a work of considerable time. The great difficulty is always to meet the immediate wants of those who are. out of employment and funds. In Auckland, if men find it difficult to get work everyone feels that the case is not hopeless. A willing man can soon reach a district where he can dig gum. The work may not be very congenial, and if he is not smart he may do little more than make "tucker," but he can, at any rate, provide the necessaries of life for the time being.

Considering the great crowd _of unemployed in the adjacent colonies, New Zealand has not suffered unduly from an influx. We cannot expect this state of things to continue. The Australian papers publish glowing accounts of this colony's prosperity, and notwithstanding the warning Mr Seddon gave some time ago, we may anticipate that with the advent of summer large numbers of men seeking work will find their way from the other side to our shores. The distress among the miners at Newcastle is acute, and 800 or 900 men are out of employment. At Broken Hill a week or two ago, 700 men, when applying for work, said that in many instances they and their families were living on bread and water. Under such circumstances, it is only reason.ableto suppose that many Australians will avail themselves of the first opportunity of trying their fortunes in New Zealand.