THE DISTRESS IN ENGLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5610, 17 February 1879, Page 6

THE DISTRESS IN ENGLAND.

fagO# OVfi QWN COEBKSPONDENT.) AUCKLAND, Fbb, 15. The following appears in the Herald today, under the heading, “ Distress in England, described by an old Auckland settler,” and bears date Manchester, Deo. 28 “ It gives one the heartache to be in Manchester just now. The distress is said to be deeper and more general than during the cotton famine. The other day a respectable looking woman was seen by a butcher to snatch a piece of cats’ meat from the stall, and make off with it. He followed her home, more in pitiful curiosity than anger, and found herself, her husband and children devouring it raw. Instead of prosecuting be relieved her, and interested others to do the same. I fear there are thousands of such homes. This morning’s Guardian contains two significant columns. One is a list of subscriptions for the relief of the poor, headed by £SOO from the Mayor, and another a list neatly as long of insolvent debtors. It is suggested that halls and dinner parties be dispensed with this year, and the money given to the poor, and not a few, I imagine will adopt the truly Christian suggestion. One lady pleads for the little bits of rag that are so generally wasted on the ground, that cut up into pieces about the size of a shilling they would make beds for the shivering children. In every church in prayers and sermons the prevailing distress is alluded to. It is partumarir keen among the respectable middle class. Tney have lived up to their means in prosperous times, and now find themselves suddenly without income and unable to obtain credit. People who live in comparatively large and comfortable houses are wanting bread. The other day a clergy* man here found a family starving on 6s a week who not long ago were in the receipt of £I2OO a year, and were among the most liberal supporters of his church. An ad* yertisement offering a clerkship of 80s a week is sure to bo answered by hundreds of clamouring applicants, many of whom have hved in Injury. Not long ago 1800 of such applicants competed for a gas ppJJectorship at

243 per week. Credit is almost gone. NObody knows whom to trust, or for how long* t Conversing about the slate of trade, nothing strikes one more forcibly than the prevailing hopelessness. Nobody seems to see light in any quarter. An ex-Manohester merchant who has done business in for forty years, gave me his opinion that the day is steadily coming when grass will grow again in Piccadilly. That is, of course, an exaggeration, yet the prospect is dismal. Many mills are silent, warehouses are glutted with unsaleable stuff, nothing is doing on 'Change except when the announcement of another failure brings people together to talk about it. BaiteW companies hero have discharged hundreds of their hands within the last month, and are reducing the wages of the rest. People abroad are ceasing to buy our goods, and _we are becoming largo consumers of theirs, in Manchester here American calicoes are finding re ady sale, and are said to bo cheaper and better than our own. The shops are beautiful with all kinds of fancy goods, but they are not English. Better days will come to Lancashire, but not yet.- The people have still much to learn. The energy and skill which made the trade of Lancashire is all here vet, but English folk are very slow m adapting themselves to changed circumstances. While operatives have been striking, and manufacturers adulterating, other nations have been 1 silently ripening in manufacturing skill* and: now the discovery has burst upon them: that we, as beaten manufacturers, will have to learn to produce an honest article. Foreign buyers will not have calico and clay when they can get calico. I know three large mills in this neighbourhood which ' are now running full time with some months orders on hand. The manager attributes this mainly to the fact that in prosperous times they never stooped to over-sizing, hence their goods still find ready sale. Operations will have to submit to the inevitable law of supply and demand. It is sad to a colonist to have to write that in many cases they will have to work longer hours at lower wages, but there is no help for it. It is a miserable thing that in such times as these, when our goods can’t possibly be sojd at a, price that will pay the cost of production, operatives should strike as in the case at Oldham, rather than submit to. the inevitable reduction of wages. The policy of the Union is in favour of short time, notwithstanding that short time increases the host of E reduction, and thus aggravates the evil which as.brought all this misery about. It wiU require something like a revolution both, of employers and employed to bring back Lancashire to its normal condition.