Taranaki-street, 19th August. SOCIALISTIC LEGISLATION.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 44, 20 August 1895, Page 3

Taranaki-street, 19th August. SOCIALISTIC LEGISLATION.

TO THX EDITOB. Sib— At last the Chairman of the National Mutual Admiration Sooietv (Mr. Seddon) has admitted that the unemployed evil really does exist, and to an extent unprecedented for many years. Bather a humiliating admission, Mr. Editor, don't you think, after expressing himself, in effeot, as confident that New Zealand could not only find ample work for her own people, but oonld at a pinch accommodate all the pilgrims who might, in search of it, arrive from over the Tasman Sea or elsewhere? There can be no doubt that the present Ministers have been really in earnest in their efforts to solve this .knotty [problem of the ages— the unemployed question— and for whyP Because, wise in their generation, they know that on the successful solution of this problem dependi their Ministerial existence. They have deolared war against the private employer, and by vigorous repressive Aots have endeavonred to improve him out of oxUtencn, on tho ground, I suppose, that he ■honld have no place in the economics of a Socialistic State. The theory is all right, perhaps, but, judging by results, it fails miierably when put into practice. The failure, I tike it, is due to the faot of the Ministers and their "faithful followers" wrestling with what may be termed the grammar of Socialism before thoroughly mastering the ABO. Even the knowledge of that brilliant propagandist of " straight

out " Socialism, the Hon. W. P. Reevea, 01 the subject is in abont the same ratio as i mole-hill to a monntain ; he might witl advantage still be groping within iti penumbra, instead of mshuiff, dazed ant briwilder^d, into the clear glon* of its lnnci oirole. There can bo no doubt that al modern legislation, whether Liberal or Tory has a more or less Sooialistio trend; anc that, when this great question beoomei better understood, the ooonpaidon of th< private employer will disappear, and he himself become absorbed as an p.otuai working unit in the " Peifeot State." Al present, as about SO per cant, of our popu' latiou do not understand the meaning of tb ■ word "' Socialism," and the remainder have the most crude and erratio ideas oonoerning it, all this reaklcss legislative interference with the individual employer must end disastrously tor the worker. The time is not opportune for the State to control (in Social ißtio parlanoe) the " whole source of prodno tion, &o." Just now an appreciable inorcase in the ranks of the employers of laboui wonld snpply a Ion? felt want. For, whether the present wotul lack of work is caused by the " prevailing depression " handy term that— or the dissemination of tommyrotio Ministerial ideas, no one can deny the fact that the ranks of the worlcless daily receive numerous additions. Having nothing to do is a most gentlemanly occupation, no doubt, bnt it has the serious drawback of often entiiling starvation. For all the praotic.il benefit" the hordes of unemployed appear to have received from the operations of the co-operative works system, which w»s to have done so muoh, they might just as well have been engaged in dredging the harbour in search of truffles, ploughing the Bands of its foreshore, or, under the instrnotion of the Government Analyst, endeavouring to extract the sun's rays 'from cucumbers. The system was intended, I believe, from its inception to enable people who were adapted for snoh a life to settle on the land ; yet. after a teat of some years' duration, I question whether, for every settler permanently settled on the land through its medium, a hundred have not obtained comfortable homes for themselves as a oonsequence of constant and remunerative employment obtained from that "sooial pest" — the much -abused squatter. It is all of a picoo with the squander and patch legislation of the past five years —legislation whioh is fast obtaining for this colony the unenviable reputition of being the paradise ot the " boguß Liberal" politician, the purgatory of the employer of labour, and the hell of the worker. Over in New South Wales resides the (at present) oontral figure of colonial political life He is a ridiculously fat little man— name of Reid. He is sometimes referred to by the Sydney Bulletin (shookingly irreverent paper the Bulletin) as " gingy Reid," but that is a mere detail. Nothing short of the genius of a Reid can possibly pull this colony out of (he slough of pohtioa] corruption and sooial despond into whioh she is rapidly settling down. We, also, have several "Bingy'B in our own Cabinet. The Premier and that " Wizard of Finance," the Colonial Treasurer, have, probably as a result of indefatigable attentions to Liberal banquets, cultivated really respectable rotundities of p ranch, or "bingy," as your versatile contemporary haß it. But with that abdominal extension I am afraid that all resemblance to the smart little man just obosen (o preside over the destinies of New South Wales begins and ends. I am, Ac, H. MiSON. Hopper-street, Wellington.