LABOUR SAVING MACHINERY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10105, 2 August 1893, Page 6

LABOUR SAVING MACHINERY.

(American Paper.) Therehaa been a greatdeal of anxiety and many objection:-)have boen raised regarding the employ mentof labour-saving machinery, coupled with, the fear that machine work would deprive the poor working man of tbe opportunities of manual labour and subsistence. The same fear extends to the increased employment of females, who fill positions previously occupied by men. The fear in either case is probably much overdrawn, if not altogether groundless. It will bo remembered that upon the introduction o’ the aewiag machine many poor needlewomen almost gave up in despair, thinking that surely their occupation was gone, aad that starvation stared them in the face. Sewing machines rapidly multiplied, and so did woman’s labour in needle work, and there are more women to-day than ever before employed in that branch of domestic art.

The same is true regarding the multiplicity of farming implements and agricultural machinery. During war timea the country could not have been maintained without the facilities for farm work machinery afforded. Ae machinery became perfected in this and all lines, the demand grew and rapidly multiplied, and the scarcity o£ mala help was not felt in consequence. At first farmers and labourers wanted to destroy tbe machines that they foolishly fancied were only robbing them of their bread, but the tide soon turned in favour. Drops increased i a quantity, quality and their value. Demand increased proportionately, and labour was again at a premium. The to male typewriters and typesetters, and the type casting machines were eye-sores to male writers and compositors, who fancied that they would be thrown out of employment; but that matter is foot regulating itself. The march of progress, once truly started, is forward and not backward. Tbe world is wide, and now fields are opened up or old ones enlarged to accommodate all who are willing co work.

Scone people are everlastingly looking for a job, and such generally fear that they may happen to find one, with no good excuse to prevent them raking it. The willing poor need Bcavcsiy fear, if they are worthy, since the esms wind chat is tempered to the shotu la-i-b ie tempered for them, and it is an ill wind, indeed, that blows no one good. Behold America, with her inventions and consequent progress, power and wealth! Contrast our condition as a nation with that of China, where inventions of a labour-saving character have been barred cut by their government, lest tbe poor be icubed of means of support. The one progressing to light and prosperity, the other retrograding to the dark ages and fast becoming a dying race. Thus is the story of this phase of the labour problem told in a nutshell.