PAST AND FUTURE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10236, 3 January 1894, Page 3

PAST AND FUTURE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —The old year is dying, and before this appears in print—if accepted—the hew year will be ushered in. I wish I could say that injustice was also dying, but unfortunately man’s inhumanity to man still makes countless thousands mourn. Some people tell us things are much better than they were. Probably they are to some, but others, even in this city of Christchurch, are carrying burdens of woe and sorrow almost too much for them to bear. Competition grows keener and keener, and men and women are under-paid even when fortunate enough to be employed at all. The other day we read of a town being destroyed by dynamite, and the next day we saw cablegrams stating that the Anarchists in London were talking that severe measures would have to be taken to bring about a better state of things for the poor. The rich are blind, indeed, not to read the signs of the times. "When we read of a child dying of starvation in a world full of wealth and plenty it should bring the blush of shame to all who are able, but unwilling, to bring about a better stats of things. In New Zealand we have universal suffrage, and if we do not have good laws it is because we do not send good men to make them. If the working men were in earnest we should soon have better laws made and enforced. It would almost appear as if our Government had been in advance of public opinion, for certainly, apart from the Liquor Bill, they have tried to pass laws of the very greatest benefit to the masses. Jaws rejected through the apathy of those they were intended to benefit most, la 1894 it is to bo hoped that the people will insist upon the rejected measures being carried through immediately the House meeta. The Eight Hours Bill is of far more importance than some seem to imagine. Men are working in Christchurch from 7 a.m. until 9 p.tu., and their pay for these long hours is 25s per week. On Saturdays their hours are much longer. Perhaps some of your readers are not aware that respectable , married men, with families to support, are often serving behind counters for 25s per week. Many of these are gentlemen as far as education ia concerned, and they have to be well dressed and are expected to be honest. The hypocrisy carried on by some of the employers is most sickening. They go to church and profess to be followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, but their every day practices come far short of their professions. It ia rumoured that employees have been cruelly and heartlessly discharged without rhyme or reason being given for their dismissal, and it is high time that the people demanded a better state of things than are now in vogue, or the many good and honourable employers which vre still have in the community will bo unable to compete against sweaters who are grinding the life out of some of our bread winners. There appears to me to bo a silver lining to the cloud of depression in England, inasmuch aa there is to be a considerable amount of money spent in shipbuilding, and when shipbuilding is busy it usually makes other trades brisk. With a revival of trade in the Old Country our own produce will probably go up in price, and if Mr Seddon-succaeds ia securing cheap money for cur people we ought to euter on a more successful era than we have seen for years r a at. I look for great and good reiulta from the Bureau for trades and commerce when it is inaugurated. I should like to see profitable public works started in all our colonies, and the many millions now locked up in various parts of the world put into useful circulation. This would bring about evolution, instead of revolution, and the world would be the richer for the outlay. Let all who can, try to make the year 1894 better than 1893.—1 am, &c., * REFORMATION.