STATE OF THE LABOUR MARKET IN THE ADJACENT COLONIES.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 139, 2 November 1844, Page 3

STATE OF THE LABOUR MARKET IN THE ADJACENT COLONIES.

We have, from time to time, shown our readers, by extracts from the various Australian papers, that the neighbouring colonies offered but a slender chance of employment to mechanics and others who might reemigrate there from New Zealand. By the Sydney papers we find that a select committee of the Legislative Council, which had been appointed " to inquire into the state of distress alleged to exist amongst certain agricultural and other labourers and mechanics with families, and to suggest the means of affording them such relief as may appear requisite," made their report on the 19th of September, in which they state " that to a considerable extent distress does exist in Sydney at the present time, particularly amongst the class of mechanics, arising from want of employment," and suggest as a remedy that certain public works, such as the construction of roads and bridges, should be undertaken by the Government in various places in the interior of the colony, that the labourers may receive employment and thus be " dispersed through the country districts." Notwithstanding . the existence of this distress in and about Sydney, there is said to be a demand for shepherds at distant stations ; but few can be induced to accept engagements which will take them far into the

interior.

On the 10th of October, Mr. Wentworth, one of the members for the city of Sydney, presented a petition to the Legislative Council from twenty-one mechanics, which stated that they had been discharged on the previous Saturday from employment in the Supreme Court House, that each had a family of five or six children, and that they should be " plunged into the greatest destitution unless some relief was extended to them from that Council." The honourable member urged the Colonial Secretary to use his influence to press into early operation the public works recommended by the committee above alluded to.

Unfortunately, distress among the labouring classes is not confined to New South Wales. The mechanics of Hobart Town and Launceston have petitioned the Governor to suspend the probation system, which allows convicts who have served a certain time and acquired a character for good behaviour, to be employed by private individuals, at a rate of remuneration which leaves the free labourer a very small chance of finding work. The answer of his Excellency was unfavourable to the prayer of the petitions, which are referred to the Home Government for consideration. The present condition of the working classes in Van Diemen's Land may be gathered from the following extracts : —

Price of Labour. — We believe, if an accurate calculation were made throughout the district of Launceston — nay, even supposing it to embrace the whole county of Cornwall, — it would be found that for every free tradesman or labourer in the receipt of adequate wages, there are not less than three working either wholly for their victuals, or otherwise destitute qf employment altogether. In this respect the operatives here are much upon a par with their unfortunate brethren in Hobart Town, and of their distresses we may form a tolerable conception by reference to the Hobart Town journals published about a month ago. — Cornwall Chfouicle, Sept. 28. Liberality. — His Excellency has headed the subscription for the destitute mechanics of Hobart Town with a subscription of £10, accompanied by a check to that amount. This is but one out of many instances of liberality on the part of his Excellency which has come to our Knowledge.— Hobart Town Advertiser.