THE NELSON EXAMINER. Wednesday, August 1, 1855.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 36, 1 August 1855, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Wednesday, August 1, 1855.

Journals become more necetsary »s men become more equal mnd individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to secure liberty: they maintain civilization. D« TOCUOEVILIB. Of Democracy in America, vol, v., p. 230.

In our last number there appeared a letter, signed "Ouvrier," which ought not to be suffered to pass without a word or two of remark upon it. The object of the writer, as far as it can be gathered from his letter, is to promote the election of what he styles "working men." to seats in the Provincial Council, and he expresses a regret that so few of that body have been invited to offer themselves as candidates.

The term "working man" is at best an ambiguous one, but in a colony like this it is impossible to attach any distinctive meaning to it. " Working man ! " Are not all colonists working men ? and where are the non-workers ? We know of none here, except a few worthless idlers who waste their precious hours and days in hanging about tap-rooms and tavern parlours, as if the sole object of their existence was to kill time ; none of whom, it may safely be affirmed, will ever be elected representatives of the people. These are the only drones in our hive. What, then, does "Ouvrier" mean by a "working man," as a member of a distinctive class 1 Is it a man who has been brought up to live by the sweat of his brow ? With a few, very few exceptions, every man who has emigrated here was a born " labourer," and if his position is now improved, he owes it to his toil, and to the application he has bestowed on his work. Does he restrict the application to those who work for hire, and are the servants of others 1 What men who work at all work not for hire, although their wages may be paid in different ways ; sometimes by a per-centage on goods sold or on produce raised, which we call "profits ;" sometimes for services rendered, as in the case of professional men ; but your lawyer, your surgeon, your minister of religion are literally and truly all working men (and hard workers too, very often, and badly paid withal), as are also your shopkeeper, your master mechanic, and your farmer. Can the distinction which " Ouvrier " wishes to draw be that which separates employers from their workmen, in the ordinary meaning of those terms ? Then, the working men of to-day will not be the working man of to-morrow, in a colony where men acquire property so fast that he who drives another's plough this season expects to be able to hold his own next year. " OuvrierV ' definition of a "working man" cannot, we imagine, answer to any of those we have given. He tells us his "working man" must possess "intellect, ability, and character" to entitle him to receive the suffrages of his fellow-men, to become one of their law-makers ; so that his distinction cannot be intended to lie between the uneducated and the educated, and we are fairly beaten in seeking to discover his meaning.

In an old country like England, where there is a born aristocracy, and where immense wealth is concentrated in individual hands, the distinction between a " working " and a " nonworking " class may be drawn : here, as we have shown, the case is totally different, and " Ouvrier " only tells half the truth when he says that " Jack is almost as good as his master," for in the majority of cases Jack is the better man of the two, and by far the most independent. It is a pity, then, to seek to persuade the ignorant and unreflecting that we have two classes, with different, if not antagonistic interests, when, in fact, we have only one. The real differences between men in a colony like this are not those which " Ouvrier" would draw, but chiefly lie in the distinctions which exist between educated and ignorant men. There is also a distinction between the possessor of accumulated capital (which exists only, however, in a moderate degree) and the capital of labour ; but labour, when directed by sober industry, becomes accumulated capital so fast that it is next to impossible to separate the two.

The regret of " Ouvrier " that so few of the working classes have been brought forward as candidates for seats in the Provincial Council, is altogether gratuitous. If we cannot define his ideas of a "working man," we are yet able to conceive something of his meaning, and even here his regrets appear to be uncalled for, seeing that in the narrowest definition of the term there are several " working men " in the Council at present, and in nearly every district where an electiou is now to take place, "working men" are candidates. We believe that " Ouvrier " must have written his letter in such haste, that he never sufficiently considered his subject. An ill-weighed remark will sometimes do as much injury as a thrust intended to be mischievous.

" Ouvrier " is not the only one who rejoices to talk of the "working classes" and the " working men " as a distinct feature of our community; but we would entreat him and others to propose to themselves what they understand by these terms before they make such use of them.