AN OMINOUS SIGN.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 514, 20 May 1879, Page 2

AN OMINOUS SIGN.

A telogram from N apier to-day announces the fact that owing to the depressed state of agricultural matters, the Hon. H. R. Russell has been compelled to reduce the wages of bis men by 25 per cent. This is the first instance of any importance, so far as we are aware, in which the present pressure has operated in reducing the wages of the working classes. Hitherto the trading community and the employers of labor hava been almost the exclusive sufferers by the financial crisis, while wages have continued as high as they hive ever been at any time during the oast twenty years of the history ot the olony. It was to be feared, however, that this state of things could not continue long, ana that if the pressure were not soon removed its effects would speedily extend through every stratum of society. There ia reason to believe, however, that the outlook is not so bad as at first sight it would seem to be. In the case of' the Hoa. H. R. Russell, it is well known that affairs have been exceptionally bad in the Hawke's Bay district— much worse iv fact than in any other part of the colony— owing to a long succession of droughts and other local causes, which have not affected the country at large. Still the fact that the reduction has been made, and that it has been accepted by the laborers, is one which cannot be overlooked or made light of. There are also other " signs, of the times " — notably •• the meetiugs of the unemployed" being held at Christchurch— < which call for the earnest consideration alike of the state -man and of every true lover of the colony. We can only hope that the present depression may soon ba a thing of tha past, and that the lessons which it conveys— painful and disastrous though they may bB iv some instances—will not be thrown away.