The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1868.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 29, 5 February 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1868.

In a once celebrated treatise upon the history of arts, it is stated that the first implement used in cultivating the soil was a crooked stick. The implement, we are told, was found to 'be so inadequate for the purpose that the whole labor of the community was absorbed in raising food. By the discovery of the plough, one man was enabled to do the work of six, and j the labor of the other five became available for various other purposes useful to the race. One became a tailor, and the community were clothed ; one a mason, another a carpenter, another a blacksmith; and thus the people acquired houses to live in and many conveniences. One, doubtless, was also enabled to think, to plan, and to invent, and so mankind made progress. This is the rationale of the history of material civilisation and of the physical advancement of the species. It is found in man's power over nature. The first advance arose from an invention which probably was viewed in those days with great disfavor, for it threw fivesixths of the community out of employment. There are two views in which the progress of this power over nature is most, generally regarded. One man considers exclusively how far it can be used in procuring wealth to an individual, a town, or a nation. This is the view of the capitalist, and of the mere political economist. Another view is that of the iguorant workman, who considers only how far his own particular trade may be affected, and who instinctively dreads and hates all new inventions. There is yet a third point of view from which man's victory over nature may be regarded. We consider that the most natural and the most legitimate purpose of the new powers acquired by man is man's own moral and physical benefit — not merely wealth to the capitalist, but improvement to the worker — an improvement which shall affect his whole condition of life. .If we consider attentively the condition of the working classes in countries in different stages of civilisation, it will be found that in countries where machinery is most largely used, the working man is of a higher character, has a higher reward, and is in every respect in a better position, than in those at a lower stage of development. Wherever he may go, the British or Anglo-American rightfully asserts superiority and commands success. The great mistake that political economists, capitalists, and ignorant workmen make is to consider the working man as a mere machine, and a machine whose labors shall be, as far as possible, incessant, whatever may be the quantity of work accomplished. This is the fallacy, and we consider it altogether unreasonable. Common sense and every-day experience alike repudiate such a doctrine. When the plough was discovered, it was not merely a means of acquiring wealth, but it was a means by which man ■was relieved from constant and oppressive toil. That means rightly used was, in fact, to a great extent a reprieve from the primeval curse. In the same way nations

acquiring physical power are enabled to I achieve a like benefit. Great Britain- has, it is said, acquired from steam power alone the force of 500,000,000 of men. She can now do wo>*k in a year which last century would have required fifty to one hundred years' toil to accomplish. Would it be fair that all this should be offered up at the shrine of Mammon ? Would it be reasonable that no part of the time thus saved should go to the benefit of the workingmau ? Happily his mental elevation, if ever it was, is now no longer a problem. Of late years no class has made greater or more rapid advances. Compared with their efforts in former years, their success is indeed astonishing. The dif- \ ference is easily explaiued. la previous efforts they commenced at the wrong end. Formerly their movements were exclusively political, now they are chiefly social and moral, and the organisation of societies having for their object the reciprocal benefit of their members, both in a mental and social point of view, by means of libraries, reading-rooms, lectures, &c, and by benefit societies, has been amongst the most active and powerful causes by which the workingman has arrived at his present position in society. For this reasou we hailed with much gratification the determination arrived at last November by the members of the Nelson Artizans' Mutual Improvement Association to hold an exhibition of art, manufacture, and industry in this city, in or about the month of March next. The object of the exhibition was, we believe, of a two-fold character : to exhibit the progress of our local industries generally, and also to obtain sufficient funds from admission fees to found a library for the use of the members of the association. We siucerely regret to learn that the anticipations of the committee have not been ! so largely realised as could have been desired. Up to the Ist of the present month, few, if any, applications had been received for space by intending exhibitors, and but for the ascertained fact that several individuals are preparing articles for exhibition, the committee would have been justified in at once relinquishing their original intention. We are glad to find, however, that at a meeting held on Saturday evening [it was determined to postpone their decision for a week, and in the meantime to discover as nearly as possible on what resources they might reasonably, rely. We may be permitted again to express our hope that their efforts may be crowned with success, and that the Exhibition — to which almost every member of the community might contribute his or her quota, I for there are few amongst us who do not possess some cherished object of art or curious work of industry, local or foreign, which might surely be lent for the purpose — may constitute one of the most noteworthy features of interest in the programme for the approaching visit of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh.