THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9029, 16 April 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1888.

The demands of the unemployed in the Southern parts of the colony have been for some years past treated with exceptional regard, and it is pleasant to see that at last a Minister has had the courage to answer a fool according to his folly. .The amount that has been expended in giving employment to this class in Dunedin and Christchurch, in the laying off of parks and doing other municipal work at the cost of the colony, has been one of the scandals disclosed in last session of Parliament, and the contrast between it and the almost literal nothing done in that direction in our district, has been a very just cause for complaint. But the appetite for such unwholesome food grows with feeding it, and the people who, in imitation of a very different manner of men in America, have dubbed themselves the "Knights of Labour," have been objecting to relief works taking them away from the city of Christchurch, and have modestly demanded that such works should be supplied to them within the city, or within such easy reach of it that they may be enabled to reside in Christchurch. That the sturdy beggars who have made this demand are 'of a much lower class than anything that we are acquainted with in our dealings with the unemployed, is pretty evident from the nature of their principal plea for having work provided for them in the city ; for they had the unmanliness to say that if the husbands were obliged to go from home to work, their wives would misconduct themselves in their absence. If this is generally true, then the sooner the brood of the Christchurch unemployed is starved out of the country, or out of existence, the better will it be for society ; and if it is not' true, the men who laid such a charge against the character of those whom they have sworn to protect, are not deserving of any consideration whatever. Those who have interviewed !the Premier at Christchurch are evidently of a very degraded class, and it is satisfactory to observe that he gave . them a little of his mind as to their unmanly _ charge against their women, and that- he peremptorily told them that any relief that might be afforded would not be brought to them, but they must go to it; for that the works would be done where they were wanted, and not where the men might ! choose to live.

It is to be hoped that this expression of intention is not the mere retort that such an insolent demand suggested, but that it is the settled principle on which any future dealing with the unemployed will be based. It seems the natural tendency of any man with whom hard work does not agree to gravitate to the town and lounging about the street corners, and hanging about the publichouses, is that which makes the condition of the unemployed chronic, and any works started in such a place, adjacent to the haunts of idlers as will tend to perpetuate this state of things is a direct injury to the men • themselves,- and, instead of lessening the evil/only perpetuates that state of things which from time to time manifests, itself in. .the cry of the unemployed. It is more than probable that, even in the most deprossed times, there is really no want of employment in the colony if those requiring employment would only go to where it is to be found. But the bane of colonial life is that so many have been imported with urban tastes, and who, therefore, prefer to cling to town life even though it be at the risk of starvation, instead of spiritedly launching out, . and determinedly seeking homes and livelihood for themselves and their families in the country. With this ; evil tendency staring us in the face it is the duty of every . man that wishes well to the community to seek the dispersion of the thousands of people who are eking out. a precarious and miserable existence in the towns ; and the man, be he Minister or other, who posters this evil ; by supplying public works within reach of city life, to sustain those who from time to time swell the ranks of the unemployed, should be looked On as an enemy to the common welfare. There must of necessity be a certain amount of public works within a city or in its neighbourhood, but they ought to be administered in such a way as to give no encouragement to the perpetuation in the city of this useless and objectionable class and public men, whether in Parliament or in municipality, should order their measures with a higher aim than merely having certain works performed, and should endeavour to make the public expenditure promote the removal

to and settlement rinr the country of these waiters on Providence, who so long as they hang about the towns are but the drones to eat the . honey which the honest workers produce. The unhealthy growth 'of' town population i 3 one of the most wretched and discour-

aging results that have been entailed by the " heroic policy •" and ,the sooner it is faced the sooner will the colony be placed on a sound basis for prosperity • and anything that tends to resist the natural dispersion of this ■ unhealthy growth should be vigorously opposed and denounced. One of the worst causes fostering the continuance of this state of things is this system of relief works, and in . the South Island it appears to have produced the very worst results. It has been our fate or foitune that we have not

been afflicted in that way in the North Any relief to the unemployed has been given us mainly in the form of village settlements, which drew away a very large contingent of the unemployed • and Although the expenditure on the unemployed down South was an act of glaring favouritism, the absence of similar treatment has been* to us a blessing in disguise. We accept the action and the declaration of Sir Harry Atkinson as an augury of better things, and we cordially hope that we are within measureable distance of the time when the wrongful and demoralising system of starting public works for the

relief of the unemployed will be a thing of the past. . That provision will always have to be made for those whom their own fault, or the caprice of fortune may throw out of the ranks of the steadily industrious and employed, we do not doubt; but we trust that such provision will be found, not in eleemosynary works that are only created as a temporary alleviation, but in real rural occupation, whether for themselves or others, which will tit them for becoming true colonists, instead of the loafing hangers-on of urban life. Happily for the colony, and doubly happily for these waiters on Providence themselves and for their families, the reckless waste of borrowed money has well-nigh reached a close, and perforce ; the Government and the local authorities must cease this spoonfeeding of chronic pauperism ; but it is sincerely to be hoped that any little provision that may yet be made available from the dregs of the borrowing will be utilised as far as it goes in the direction of diverting the population to the country, sending as Sir Harry Atkinson proposes the unemployed to where work requires to be done, instead of as lieretofere taking the work to them.