The New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1866.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 744, 3 April 1866, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO.

AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1866.

" Givo every man tliiiio ear, but few thy voice : Take each mail's censure, but reserve thyjudgment. This above all,—To thine ov/neelf be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

The reply of Mr. Carleton to the working men who waited upon him the other day, appears to us to be based on a thoroughly sound view of tho case. Lot- tho Government by all means provide labour for those who are temporarily requiring it; but let it be distinctly understood that efforts will be made to lind employment for the unemployed among the settlors, and that those who decline to Avork for fair wages obtained from tho settlers, have no claim whatever upon the Government. Wo do not mean by this to argue that Government ought not to undertake public works, but we are very firmly of opinion that, whenever possible, the Government ought to lei. out these public works by contract, and let the contractors employ the necessary labour. By this means the work will be done better, quicker, and cheaper. The Government will not be looked up to so much as tho support and stay, on which full reliance can be at all times placed, and so in fact sap the independence, the self-reliance, the foresight, and prudence of those whoso eye-s are overcast upon the Government.

Those who feci that the Government will provide for them, will never feel that they ought to exercise priulencc and self-denial and provide for themselves. They will never dream of making provision for a rainy day, for they will have the Government storehouse to go to for what they may require, whether tho day is line or wet.

And it is to the interest of the mcu themselves that the Government crutches with which some of them have so long hobbled along, should be taken from them, and that they should be left to exercise with full freedom their own limbs. Waiters upou Government are ever on the same low level. They never rise to a height of independence in fortune any more than in feeling. They are poor lathers of poor children. They are ever at the bottom of the ladder without hope of rising—they are without the energy to rise.

Their companions pass them by and leave them far behind. Independence and porhap.s fortune is gained by one, the other gains nothing, but dies as he lias lived, leaving his children nothing but his own bad example. Hardships, suffering, poverty, may have to be endured by the former for a time, but the bread of fair honest labour must ever taste sweeter in tho mouth of an honest manly person than that of charity. Labour can and will be found for those who will labour at a fair rate of wages, a rate exceeding what they ever earned at homo, and in a new country like this a superabundance of labour is a merely temporary matter. Those who are now short of employment, may by ordinary prudence be employers of labour themselves in a few years, but they must remember that Home was not built in a day, that success often lies through disappointment, labour, anxiety, and suffering; and success is all the sweeter when so obtained. The greater the difficulty, the greater the pleasure when that difficulty is overcome.

But from peculiar circumstances a large number of immigrants and military settlers are in great danger of leaning upon Government far longer than they ought to do. They may have met with difficulties they did not anticipate, but they must be prepared to meet and to overcome them. They must be imbued with the spirit of that large class home who stedfastly rely on themselves and shrink from throwing themselves a burden 011 the public. There are many, doubtless, of a contrary frame of mind, persons who look to Government, parochial or other to assist them at every step. But these are the worthless, unthrifty, ignorant, and careless, wanting in that independent honest manly pride, which disdains to osk for relief until the very last moment. To one, parish relief seems the lowest depth of degradation to which an honest hard-working man can be reduced; to others it is looked upon, as the natural source from whence they can derive aid without shame, when, through their own imprudence, idleness, and extravagance, they are reduced to a state of want. One class has a sort of family pride in being able to say that neither they nor their fathers have ever received relief and support from public funds; the other are hereditary paupers, who think it no shame to be kept at the public expense.

It is quite evident that it is most important that new countries like this should at the outset of their career set their face steadfastly against encouraging the feeling that Government is always to bo constantly looked up to for help. And for this purpose Government, as such, must be as little as possible a direct employer of labour. It must, as we have said, let out its public works by tender, and so place the labour market on a proper footing. Government ought not to compete with the general body of employers of labour, and this it does by directly undertaking public works, and the Government stroke is looked upon with

favour by many who will grumble the loudest at their position, but who are the last to give a fair day's work for a fair day's wage. Thus men wlio could only earn a bare living before they left liome, without any chance of bettering their condition or leaving a little property for their children, will grumble after arriving in New Zealand, although earning a rate of wages which will enable them to enjoy what they would consider luxuries at home, and save move thaii the entire sum received by them in "wages before they came here. In course of time, and that 110 long time either, such persons could save enough to start on their own farm, and live in comfort 011. their own properly every year increasing in value. All these things should be carefully considered.

The whole of New Zealand, and of Australia too, has been suffering from a stagnation of business. This depression is by no means confined to Auckland. It is not long since a meeting of working men was held in Melbourne to consider the badness of the times, and to prevent, of possible, more immigrants coming out to Melbourne. Persons who have left this place during the present depression, and who have gone to Australia, and California even, have returned. They do not find everything so promising as was expected, and of course they have suffered by their journeyings. We have ourselves the fullest confidence that this Province will go ahead and progress, not perhaps at railroad speed, but at any rate at a safe and comfortable speed sufficient to satisfy all reasonable people. We have on every side around us the elements of material prosperity, but we must not have such a feverish anxiety to make haste to bo rich.