The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2727, 13 November 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1871.

Ws to-day publish a letter from a correspondent, in .which he affirms that many persons in Dunedin are unable to obtain work so as to obtain a full

supply of the necessaries of life, and therefore practically cannot pay for | ducating their children. We are not »repared to say that this statement is ncorrect. It may be true that many ire out of work. It always has been ,he case, not only at Home but in the Colonies, that certain classes incapable )f adapting themselves to circumstances unk into poverty ; not because there is lothiug to be done for a livelihood, but because they are, or imagine themselves, unable to do it. The real question to be answered in such a case is, whether the fault lies in the individual or in an overplus of labor 1 It cannot be altogether in the latter in a country with not one-hundredth part of the population it is capable of supporting. There is not one industry yet developed to its utmost, although there may be some trades in which the product of their labor has for the present overtaken the supply. Such must inevitably be the case in a Colony in which population is stationary. It would not be so were there a regular influx of people; but as this is not just now likely to be the case, the next best thing to be done is to give attention to some other branch of industry until demand again springs up for the labor of the classes now depressed. There is always unwillingness in men to engage in work to which they have not been accustomed. This is very natural, but, unfortunately very detrimental to success in a Colony. Perhaps the classes most helpless are those who have been brought up to genteel employments. They have brought with them a set of prejudices which it would be very wise to get rid of. In the old world manual labor is looked upon as in some degree a degradation. No doubt this arose from traditional ideas handed down from generation to generation from feudal times, in which work was done by slaves and vassals. Such notions should have no home in the Colonies. Everybody cannot lead. : There is only a limited number of mercantile or banking situations to be had, only a certain number of professional positions to be gained, while other fields of industry lie waiting to be developed. The Colonies are much in the condition of Scotland in the days of Adam Smith, who describes it as follows; lu the lone houses and very small villages which are scattered about in so desert a country as the highlands of Scotland, every farmer must be a butcher, baker, and brewer for his own family. In such situations we can scarce expect to find even a smith, a carpenter, or a mason, within less than twenty miles of another of the same trade. The scattered families that live at eight or ten miles distance from the nearest of them, must learn to perform themselves a gre t number of little pieces of work, for which, in more populous countries, they would call in the assistance of those workmen. Country workmen are almost everywhere obliged to apply themselves to all the different branches of industry that have so much affinity to one another as to be employed about the same sort of materials. A country carpenter deals in every sort of work that is made of wood; a country smith in every sort of work that is made of iron. The former is not only a carpenter but a joiner, a cabinet-maker, and even a carver in wood, as well as a wheel-wright, and plough-right, and cart and waggon-maker. If, however, it be true that so many who wish for work are really idle through compulsion, we cannot acquit the Government of blame. We have again and again urged the necessity for training up a mining population, but without success. The people are apathetic, and the Government indolent or ignorant —perhaps both. Nothing is more certain than that it if an imperative duty. It is a disgrace to us that the Chinese can live by thousands in a country where our own countrymen are allowed to suffer want where hundreds of thousands of acres of auriferous land lie unworked around us. Mining for gold ought to be a resource against want of other labor, and would be if men were taught where to go and how to work. We commend the following to public attention, which we extract from the “North American Review ” for January, in the hope that public attention may be directed to this question : Like all other educational institutions, schools of mines in Europe form part of the system of Government ; but unlike the others, their officers, instead of belonging to the department of education, are connected with that of mines. That is to say, schools of this class are regarded as investments which are necessary to making mining either profitable or possible. To the knowledge of which they are the source the mines of Europe are indebted for their ability to work low-grade ores ; and were that knowledge to be now eliminated and the world thrown back to its resources of a century ago. hundreds of mines would have to be given up, and bread w uld be taken from a hundred thousand mouths.