STATE SOCIALISM.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXI, Issue 230, 2 October 1895, Page 3

STATE SOCIALISM.

Thk Sydney Evening News has an article on "State Socialism; Its Work m New Zealand," by " an old New Zealand journalist," m which the writer says :—At any rate, there Ss a very conspicuous difference between the sayings and doings of the Ballance party m 1801, and those of the Beddon party m 1895. Some of your readers may remember how their oratois then seemed to be im» pressed with the idea that it was their duty to run New Zealand m the interests of the human race. As for the unemployed difficulty, there was to be no such thing as low wages either; the State waß to provide abundant work at the best of wages for all. A man had only to land m New Zealand,, an orator at a Mel-' bourne Trades Hall banquet said, to be at once taken oharge of by the Labour Bureau, sent by train to his destination, where well-paid work would be provided for him. He would also be furnished with restaurant coupons to beep him going with meals by the way I What has the end of it been ? On the co-operative works now there are a thousand or two men, perhaps, employed at betfor wages, it may be, than they could earn otherwise. They are safe votes for the Government. As for the rest of the working class community, they never had such a time as during the last two winters. In the forest districts, to my knowledge, if anyone called for tenders for felling 50 acres of bush be would have next morning a stack of applicants a foot high to look through. Piecework has been, for some time past, taken at lower rates than ever it was before, and x lately day wages have followed suit, and have been reduced all round. It might be idle to attribute this calam« ity, even very largely, muoh less altogether, to the action of the Government; but it brings out very strikingly the entire powerlessness of the State, when times are bad, to avert such a calamity, and the futility of the viotory of a Labour party, however complete, as a remedy for social troubles of the sort. Rightly or wrongly, the victorious Labour party m New Zealand have not of late even m«de any attempt whatever to deal with the unemployed difficulty, or to check the exodua of population. All their energies have been devoted to the work of staving off disaster from the weaker financial institutions of the country, and from the less robust private firms that would have fallen along with them.