The New Zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, THURSDAY, SEP. 27, 1866.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 896, 27 September 1866, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, THURSDAY, SEP. 27, 1866.

BFKGTKMDB AGENDO. "Give every man thine ear, but fewtliy voice : Take each man's censure, but reserve thy'judgmdnt. This above all, —To thine own Self'be true A nd it must follow, as the night the day; Thou canst not then be false to any man."

A public good lias been effected by introducing to the notice of the Synod tho subject of pauperism in Auckland. The cussion which ensued has placed the matter iu its true light, aud has cleared away much of the misapprehension existing in the minds of a portion of the public as to the character and extent of tho distress said to prevail so largely in this city. Much of an alarmist nature has been written on the Subject lately, in the same manner as much was made of an alleged state of destitution in Waikato some months since,which, upon investigation, turned out to bo altogether unfounded. In the present case, that referring to the state of this city, Southern journals have eagerly seized upon these sensational articles and letters and have blazoned far and wide the intelligence, untrue though it be, that th~ working classes iu this province are suffering from extreme destitution, that we are in. fact, as a people, pauperized, Nothing can bo more hurtful to the province than this. It keeps away capital and deters immigration. What man iu the face of the events of the last few years would emigrate to the Cape ? aud if credence could be Us justly given to the maudlin jeremiads of somj here, it might come to be said, " Who would emigrate "to the province of.Auckland .?"

Perhaps no better or more satisfactory analysis of the matter could have been furnished than that supplied by Bishop Solwvn, when wc bear in mind that in no instance is a person needing food supposed to be refused rations by the Government relieving officer, or if an able bodied man, Government work at a rate of wages which will at least provide the main necessaries of life, shelter, food and elothlug. Ilia Lordship eliminated tho true position of tho ease when ho said there was a monthly issue of 8000 rations, or 260 per day. Assuming, then, that no deserving applicant is sent away unrelieved by the dispenser of Government rations, wo thus arrive at the amount of destitution existing in this city—-nay, even let us double the number, and take it at 500, and we have not then the ap paling state of destitution said to exist in Auckland. This number, too, we must recollect would represent the destitution of the province, not of the city, for whatever destitution does exist in any part of the province, finds its way to, and remains in Auckland. Allowing, then, that to every person who applies to Government for rations, as being poor and destitute, there is another who hides his poverty, and is too proud to accept even an alms that he has a right to receive, we find that the average of distress is less than one per cent, of the entire popular tion. Surely the sensation-mongors who have taken up the cry of " distress " might find more useful work to do—might find some more solid basis on which to build a cheap reputation for philanthropy.

But even if the numbers of distressed persons were one per cent, of the pop/'ihtion, it would be a matter of surprise, and one calling for Government enquiry, that in a new colony where every man's labour is in demand, there should be any, able to work, who are unable to obtain employment. Could wo examine into the circumstances of every one of these 260 recipients of rations, probably representing only some 150 heads of families, we should find s after accounting for the. sick and infirm, that the larger portion of the remainder were less unable than unwilling to work, and had become pauperised by the Very system of almsgiving which exists. We are told, in the report of the Synod, on the authority of two very worthy clergymen, both of whom havo recently travelled over the greater portion of the settled districts of the province, that never was there so large a breadth of land in cultivation, or a greater demand for agricultural labour, more, especially in the North, and yet it is no nn.frequent matter, when asking persons seeking work or relief, why they do not try the country districts, to be met with the reply that these have been tried and in vain. The solution of this discrepancy may be very easily arrived at. The offer of work by settlers to those travelling in search of .it is met with an attempt to extort a rate of wages which the settler can neither afford, nor is willing to i give, and the labourer passes on from farm to farm, refusing, perhaps, several fair and reasonable offers, to return to the reserve fund which he knows awaits hiin in Auck- ! land of Government relief, and the sympathy of charitable societies and charitable individuals, or to loaf about the town doing an occasional day's work at a higher rate of wages. We are drawing no imaginary picture of the working of the present system. There is not a week passes but some country set- : tier calling at our office.gives us instances of' this kind, which have occurred under his own immediate notice. Within the present week we have been thus told of two such cases,in one of which,ah immigranturtskille d even as a farm servant, and representing himself as utterly destitute, refused tea.

shillings a week arid board and lodging, .preferring to remain; idle in Auckland unless he could obtain fifteen shillings and the other in which a person, also, representing himself as destitute, was 'offered: a piece of excavation work to perform- He was sent to look at the ground, and 'demanded ten pounds sterling for the job ;. if he could not get that he.would :not do it at.'■ all, he would not take a. farthing less. The', calculation of a professional, man showed that the work could be done, at the current rate of wages, for fifty-five shillings. Wo Could multiply these two instances by a hundred had wo time, or were it necessary, but give them as facts which have occurred, and which are the two most recent that have been, brought to our notice, as far back as the day before yesterday; before the week . is out we shall probably hear of half a dozen others. There is no doubt that the principle of the Government system of relief requires revision. The sick, the infirm, the widows aiid orphans of the community, are a just charge upon the public funds, but to extend these to able-bodied, men is simply to raise up a most unjust and injurious interference between capital and labour ; to create a reserve fund, on which, in case of failure in attempts ■. ing to extort exorbitant wages, the workman may fall back. The price of labour is yet too high in country districts. It is this which retards the cultivation of our waste lands, and reacts, in more ways than one, directly and indirectly, to the injury of the working classes.

Those who have been loudest in raising the cry of distress have failed to make out a case. There is not—even in the state of temporary depression with which all the colonics, and this province of Hew Zealand perhaps as little as any, are more: or less affected —any reason to resort to any extraordinary measures for the alleviation of individual distress, far less is there any necessity for special, legislation on the subject. "\Ve should be sorry to see pauperism made a colonial institution as some would have it. Nothing of that kind is needed. As one member of the Synod very justly observed, there are hundreds of well to do settlers now in Auckland, who were glad to earn half a-crown a day in times of depression here, yet who now occupy comfortable, nay, wealthy positions at the present moment, no poor-law was needed by them, and if those who find themselves similarly situated would use the same exertions as the older settlers have done, there would be no cry of destitution aud distress now. ~Wc are heartily sick of the seutimentalism which lias become mixed up in this matter, and which tends to increase rather than decrease the amount of destitution which does really exist.