THE UNEMPLOYED.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5398, 3 June 1879, Page 3

THE UNEMPLOYED.

THE very rowdy and discreditable meeting of " the unemployed " at Christchurch was highly creditable to our working - classes, r for ifc immistakeably showed that the better class of workmen held aloof, and left the agitation to be sustained, by a. few loafers. Jack Lee, the originator of the meeting, and the chief -speaker there, is a well-known loafer of the M'Laren stamp, always ready-to stand on any convenient stump, and; hold forth in violent language on the " wrongs "of the working man. Thank Heaven, we. have as yet few of that kind of men 1 inthe colonies, and when they do

come they are not long in finding their true level, The artizan in New Zealand is,- as a: whole, superior to his English brother, and though he may for a moment be led away by plausible claptrap, he generally soon " bottoms " the extent, of the mental capacity of his would-be guide, philosopher, and friend. Jack Lee is too well-known in Christchurch to haver any influence with the real working men, and loafers are happily few, so that his following is small. .' He. and the two or three other men he could induce to come upon the platform contended that, because the Government agents were so silly as to pay theifpassage to thecolony,the Government was bound, to find them work when they arrived. Such an argument is monstrous. The men were not obliged to emigrate — they came here of their own free will. They are now to some extent, no doubt, suffering from the scarcity of money, which prevents buildings and other works being' proceeded with as rapidly as last year, but they have in the past done so well thatwith ordinary thrift they would have been prepared for a season of enforced idleness. In Canterbury, during thje figgt three moaths'of the year, the building of the Temuka hospital and several' other local works had to be suspended, because of the scarcity of h\bor and the high price demanded for that labor. Mr Macandrew the other day remarked that tenders for public works were* from :25 to 30 per cent, higher than

two years ago, the contractors unaniinqusly giving as their reason that they had to pay so much more for labor. The toiytis may have been fully stocked for some jfciine, ijut we have had continual cries from the country districts for more workers. , "Yet we are told by these self-

appointed advocates of the, "working

ihan" that the labor market has been so glutted that work Las been difficult ]to obtain. for years past. "We can readily ■understand that Jack Lee and others of his kidney have not been all the time employed, for two very sufficient reasons. In the first place they

are not likely to seek for work ; they wait

for it to come to them. In the second place masters " fight shy" of such men, for they conceive it no part of their duty

to give a fair day's work for a fair day's

pay, and shirk all they possibly can. Those willing and able to work have not

found employment scarce, though they .may now and then have been idle for a • few days. Many of them have placed J; themselves beyond the reach of a tern: porary depression. We want no Govern- • merit aid for loafers— if they leave the „ colony so much the better for us. If the ■ depression continues, and many of those ! really anxious to obtain work are un- ' able to do so, it will be well if the Govern-

merit can put more contracts for public works in hand. At present the cry is 11 from a few loafers, who at the first

, v breath of adversity call upon the Govern•"ment.to aid them. To yield to their 1 demand now would be to create a

dangerous precedent, and, worse-still, it would encourage tho formation of a 1 " pauper-class," than which few greater ' /^misfortunes could overtake the colony. r ' VW&en the real workers, after exhausting • every other means of finding em ployment, turn to the Government for aid, their claims will, we yen-

fi ture to assert, not be denied. Until :' that comes about — and we hope it will be : ; : many years yet before New Zealand is at

' bo low an ebb — it would be the reverse of ' wisdom for the Government to yield. | We should be heartily glad to see again a : '. large demand for labor, but not at the _cpst of increasing the public indebtedness , by forcing on railways or other public works before the country is so far settled as to make them remunerative. For some little time to come all • classes must be content to suffer somewhat from the

soaroity of money.. , It tells . not ,only on the: artisan; or ; laborer; 'but' l^;^^ 1 heavily on , t]h.e trader, and from the,extensive merchant to the- small; retail dealer all feel its' effect. To- attempt to ; press on public works with undue fapidty, simply to make employment abundant, would be to discount the prosperity of I the future. It may be reasonably hoped that a few months at furthest will see us past the worst of the depression, for the •great abundance of money in England must in the end react upon the , colonies. Until then let all seek to be self -helpful, and let us not, before absolute necessity arises, hear a pitiful cry to the Government for public money to relieve o.ur private wants, '