AT THE QUEEN'S STATUE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 258, 24 July 1908, Page 4

AT THE QUEEN'S STATUE.

. 1 " SUNSHINE AND SOCIALISM.. • A couple .of hundred wharf • labourers,' clerks, and office-boys basked, placidly, in the genial'warmth of yesterday's midday sun--shino listening; to Comrade Dowdall's'views. Behind the orator-stood a couple of workers holding a calico streameron wliich wero displayed columns of figured showing workers' .wages, how many' children they had, how many rooms they occupied, and what was paid in rent, the sum total of which was, according to the speaker,- that 40 '.per 'cent, of workers' wages- went'"'in-rent, and that tho \ members .of'the family lived on 6Jd--a,.day, while.it cost the' Stato Is. 3d. per day for prisoners and charitablo institutions, of over Is. a day for inmates! Right through Comrado Dowdall's speech thero was no particular response from the crowd; no'one even ■ said "hear, hear," and when one of the' •crowd suggested that the speaker should "get work," or something to that effect, tho speaker called" on' the solitary policeman to preservo law and order and to stop interruptions from this' " paid hireling of tho capitalist class," .whilst tho crowd smiled. Indeed, it smiled most of tho time—smoked ■ and smiled'—-and doubtless many wondered what thoy would be doing if capital "did <"nbt employ them.

Comrado Dowdall was followed by Mr. D. M'Laren, who deplored'the condition of the unemployed, which, ho said, was not peculiar to Wellington. Ho knew that the big drop in tho prico of wool had something to do with it. Sir Joseph Ward and tho Mnisters knew it, but they had gono up and down tho country talking about our buoyant finances instead of making some provision to meet the changed condition. He condemned the proposed .amendment to' tho Arbitration Act as a mixed up.mess of class legislation that was an insult to the intelligence of the workers, and .the exertion wage as the best way to legalise sweating. Mr. McLaren referred to the Hon. J. A. Millar as tho." Minister for Capital," and-stated as the reason that all his recent actions showed that his sympathy lay with capital. ; . . ,