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New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1191, 7 September 1867, Page 3

Tiie fact is mentioned by our Karaka correspondent that tenders had been sought and obtained for some carpenter's work at Sliortland, that one was considerably under the other, that a meeting of working carpenters had been held, who declared the job could not be done for the lowest tender, and the "wages of carpenters should be ten shillings a-day. Now this seems the beginning of a system as short-sighted as it can possibly be. Three years ago, money was abundant, labor scarce, and in great demand, no one out of employment, all doing well, and carpenters were paid ten shillings a-day for their labor. That I time lias gradually passed away, like a dissolving view, beautiful to look at, | and worthy of great admiration while it lasted, but the blank seems all the greater after the brilliant colors are no longer visible. The very beauty of the picture makes the ordinary white sheet, on which it was projected, all the plainer when it is seen in its ordinary state. The great prosperity we had, when allotments were greedily sought after, and bought at high prices, when houses rose in every paddock around the town, makes the adversity which has overtaken us —when houses and land are all but unsaleable at any price, and rents arc very largely reduced—appear all the greater. And tho great depression, which is now being felt throughout Europe and America,, seems not to teach lessons of the most ordinary character to men. We are constantly told of men in distress, unable to find employment; persons who, to gain a scanty livings will go stoncbreaking, flax-dressing, and to any work at all that can be given to them. Pictures are drawn of great destitution, some true and some highly coloured, and yet, with all this cry ringing in our ears for work for the unemployed, with all the appeals to oiir sympathy for aid, no sooner is a little work to be obtained by the very class of men for whom there was exceedingly little work in Auckland, we are informed that the men meet, combine, discuss, and decide not to work under fen shillings a-day. Now, is this the way to encourage men with capital to have any more work done than they can possibly avoid at these war rates of wages ? The present price of house property in Auckland is a grim monster, warning them not to commit any such folly. There are houses now to bo sold that would not fetch for cash much more than was paid in wages for their construction. And yet directly there seems a chance of giving somo employment, the verv men who have suffered most from want of employment, and the class for whom, in tho ordinary state of things, the work in their own trade must be limited for some time to come, unless an extensive payable goldfield is found, absolutely check that stream of labor which would so greatly benefit them, and demand ten shillings a-day. "We consider this a most unwise, a most foolish, policy. The Bourbons are said never to learn, and never to forget anything. Are working men so far like the Bourbons that they cannot learn the injury they do themselves by such action as that which we are condemning? They are so much unlike them that they can forget, and so soon, the forced idleness in which they_ have lately been compelled to live, the asking in vain foi*«ork in Auckland at five shillings a-day even> Is the meeting to which we allude to be looked upon as inaugurating a kind of trades union; or -will those men, who choose to work at what, all things considered, is a fair rate of wages, be allowed to do so ? The action of the trades unions in England, as at present managed, is doing more permanent injury to men who have to labor with their hands, than all the bad legislation, all the tyranny of masters, all tho evils, real or imaginary, of an aristocratic government can at this period inflict upon them. Tho men are literally combining moat effectually to drive various businesses out of the country, and thus cut down root and branch that which they and their children are dependent upon. We trust that working men of all classes here will carefully think over the position taken by large numbers of their class at home, and avoid tho mistakes which they are committing. Allthe speeefhmaking and the talk in the world will not alter the fact that labor is the machine

which requires the steam of capital to set it in activity. _ Neither can the fact be altered, that capital can. be very easily removed from one place to another. And what special circumstances are there at Shortland to warrant such, large wages being required ? "We are told that provisions are sold at a very little advance tip on Auckland price, and If wages are to be regulated at all by the cost of food, there can be little reason for any very large advance in wages on what those men would be glad to get in Auckland, at least men who would rather earn an honest living by working, than loaf about the place half-starved, and kept alive by charity. We by no means wish the laborer, whatever may be his craft, to work for less wages than circumstances will fairly give him. Labor is a commercial commodity undoubtedly, but not to sell that labor at a fair and reasonable price, is just as wise as for a merchant to decline to sell his goods except at exorbitant profits, and so by not selling at all bring himself to bankruptcy. Were theKLaraka gold-fields yielding large returns, instead of mere specimens, were there a crowded population making money, and carpenters very scarce, and work very pressing, the thing would be different. But, as it is, there is very little work; there are plenty of idle bands, who have been reduced greatly in circumstances, who are well able to do the work, and they demand the same rate of wages paid during the height of the war. With abundance of labor, and little work, it is sought to forcfl up the price of labor. Supply and demand'areto have nothing to do with the settlement oi'the question; for the sake of the working men of this Province, in whose welfare we have shown that we take no small interest, we trust they will not commit themselves to a suicidal policy, which will prevent labor being employed to the extent it otherwise would be to the benefit of their own class and the community generally. . Weperfectly recollect that, in connection with the recent flax discussion and reports, we heard of a carpenter, who, having no work at his own trade, had gone down to a flax-swamp to endeavour to earn a living at flax-dressing, a work to which, he was wholly unaccustomed, and at which his expectation was that he might earn a few shillings a-day. Well now, take that man as a representative of a class. Does it not seem preposterous for such to keep to flax-dressing,-or other temporary make-shift work, earning small wages, and decline to work at that they can do well, and which they are accustomed to do, unless they are paid at least twice as much for their labor in their own trade that they can earn in the other work. It seems to us so perfectly preposterous that we felt it a duty to place the matter fairly, not only before the particular trade to which we have alluded, but to men engaged in other occupations. By all means let the worker have a proper wage for his work, no matter what his occupation may be, but do not let him demand such a price for his labour as to render the latter a luxury to be sparingly enjoyed. Both employers and employed will, in the end, gain by such a system, while loss must result from forcing up wages to such a point that employers can only afford to pay them for special purposes absolutely necessary.