The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA: FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1894.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1036, 1 June 1894, Page 4

The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA: FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1894.

The Hon. the Minister of Labour recently announced his intention of introducing legislation during the ensuing session of Parliament to deal comprehensively and finally with the unemployed question. This is an oldstanding question, one that is yearly and almost daily becoming more urgent, and if the Minister can bring about its satisfactory solution he will deserve well of working men and of the community generally. We believe that every succeeding Ministry of the Colony up to the advent of the Seddon Ministry maintained the principle that while it was their duty to legislate, and to administer the affairs of . the country so as to induce general prosperity, including regular employment and adequate remuneration for all willing to work, yet they held that it was no part of the functions of the State to provide work for this or any other class of men. They felt that were they to recognise any such obligation •it would prove destructive of personal independence and personal exertion, dwarfing the individual energy of the community, and retarding the progress of the important industries of the country. The Seddon Government, however, took a different view of the matter, and both Ministers and their most staunch supporters: publicly, an-

nounced the doctrine that it was one of the first duties of the State to find employment for all who were unable to find it for themselves. And they lost no time in proceeding to give p.actical effect to this doctrine. The result, as was expected, was to induce a large influx of the unfortunate, the discontented, and the unemployed from, the neighbouring colonies. This influx of emigrants was pointed to as an evidence of the exceptional prosperity of New Zealand, and wonderful predictions were indulged in! as' to' its brilliant future, the whole being claimed as the outcome of the wise ! legislation .and administration of the ; Government. It served no purpose to point out that the prosperity that for a time prevailed after the advent of the present Government "was only the natural I'esult of the prudent financial policy of their predecessors, and of the remunerative prices that were then obtained for all classes of colonial produce. A\l such arguments . were summarily dismissed as Tory opposition and jealousy. Well, we have the same Government still ; the unemployed are also still with us, and apparently they are more numerous and their condition more, desperate than has ever before been experienced in the Colony. We believe ifc is something new in New Zealand to find it necessary to provide shelter sheds' for the hundreds of houseless and starving people who were obliged to sleep in the open air in the dead of winter, or beneath a friendly tree in the neighbouring bush. This, we say, is something new in New Zealand, but although the former prosperity was directly due to the wisdom of Ministers, they, of course, are in no way answerable for the present adversity, which must be laid atthe door of those who have failed to give them support all along the line. Now, the truth is the present Government had but very little to do with the former prosperous condition of the country, and they have just as little to do with the present depression. Had the price of wool, wheat, oats, frozen mutton, and other staple products maintained their former remunerative stand at d, the present season of depression would not have undertaken the country. But we cannot help saying, that the Government must be held responsible to some extent for the present dire straits of the unemployed. People have not yet forgotten the attitude taken up by Ministers during the strikes of a few years ago ; nor have they forgotten the terms on which they stood towards the leaders in the strike movements. The Government might then have done much to smooth matters, and to prevent open rupture between employers and employes, but the. influence exerted was all to a contrary effect, and this is one of the causes of the present distress among the unemployed. But. now the Government seem to have entirely changed their policy towards working men. After inducing a large, influx of this class by giving high rates for wages and holding out prospects of continuous state support, they now tell them ie is no part of the duty of a Government to find work for working men. There are also indications that the Government will not long tolerate meetings of such men for the purpose of ventilating their grievances, and for deciding on united action for their relief. Speaking at Hyde the other clay the Premier was sufficiently, plain on this point. Addressing the working men he said : " I also desire to advise you that "you should not be too demonstrative. There is no necessity in' this country with the present men governing the country for men to be dictatorial, for men to be holding meetings anri atmcinff th.fr C±nvi>rnmnr\t fl.nrl everybody. There is no necessity for that. If yon bring your wants and requirements quietly before your representatives and before the Government, more attention will be paid to them than to the biggest public meeting you can hold in the Colony .1 say, because you are the most numerous — and the workers will always be the most numerous — you must not, even though your wants were the most pressing, assume to yourselves selfgovernment, anarchy, or violation of the law. Do not do that ; and if there is in you midst at any time any man who assumes that position at once rej solve to have nothing to do with him. He is a firebrand who will do you harm. It is those men who have done you great wrong in the past ; therefore do not let them lead you." And what was the attitude of the Premier towards these firebrands in the past 1 But the agitation was- then against private employes of labour; now it is against the new employers, the public employers, the Government, and as the proverb hath it "circumstances alter cases." But, anyhow, although the unemployed and their wives and families may starve there must be no more agitation, no more public meetings.