SOME POVERTY PROBLEMS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9387, 10 April 1896, Page 3

SOME POVERTY PROBLEMS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THK PRESS. Sir, —I am pleased to see some interest has been attracted to surplus labour or poverty problems, as they are pleased to be called. Your correspondents do not appear to have taken a practical view of the problem. These men nob beiug able to get work at their usual calling, have only beeu educated to pick aud shovel work, and the Government, Road Boards, or; Councils, are the only parties who ever had much of such work to do, hence the difficulty. Sir, it is quite reasonable, if you educate a man -to be a shoemaker, a fisherman, a miner, or a member of Parliament, in bad times he will try to Jive at some profession ho has learut. This ia where I have seen the mistake each party has made iv relief Work generally ; it has only been temporary relief, aud what has made the difficulty worse, the present Government have forced it through charitable aid, thereby educating them to be paupers to all intents aud purposes; and the heroism which the doctor speaks of against receiving parochial relief, has been as much as possible stamped out of them, and each year we may expect the charitable aid rates to increase if tluy are not educated to some work for self-reliance. I have called public attention to a number of our natural resources which would be permanent work for them. I have still a number more, and I firmly believe that were the Government the least anxious to assist these poor men, that work equal to 30s to 40* per week could be gob for thousands more than we have. Why, sir, one of the members last year proposed to educate them in mining, being the next thiug to pick and shovel work, aud stated that any amount of ground, with a very small outlay, could be provided, whereby these men could earn 30s to 40s per week, but the Premier put his foot on it, and. would have none of that. He would rather have the Chinaman or all the hordes of other countries to come aud take it, as by count* ing heads you 6C3 he apparently shows he has reduced taxation. Then another queer proposal is nationalisation of the land to cure this evil. Can, sir, you tell mc what the nationalist wants ? Does he want potatoes, bread and vegetables grown by others for. him to share without any labour towards it, or is it only, &3 he would make us tbiok, that the Government only should own land. I should like to know the difference between thab aud what now obtains, as they charge what rent they please by taxing the land all xb is possible to pay without seizing what " Nationalist" wants for himself, a part of other men's labours. The Government; have any amount of land without "bursting up" if they were honest in the matter, only it may not be near a railway or theatre; bub a sound nationalist with self-reliance and plenty of grit in him could build those things, like the pioneers.—Yours, &c, Edwin A. Lock.

TO THS RDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —I was very glad to see in your issue of to-day the sensible letter signed " Rustic." Beyond all question, the two chief causes of colonial poverty here in New Zealand are want of thrift and the determination of many workers to refuse anything short of the whole loaf.— Yours, &c, Halfa Loaf.