THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1886.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 7777, 8 May 1886, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY).

SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1886.

With which are incorporated the Wellington Independent, established and the New Zealander .

lif the brief reference which our space yesterday permitted to the action of the City Council on Thursday evening relative to the proposed imposition of a poor-rate, we expressed our satisfaction that the Council had decided first to try the experiment of inviting voluntary contributions before imposing a poor-rate, and our hope that the result of the experiment would prove satisfactory. We purpose now to give one or two reasons which seem to us to tell strongly in favour of avoiding a special rate, if possible. The first reason needs little enforcement. It is the undesirableness of inflicting a fresh rate on the already heavily-burdened citizens with existing municipal rates, aggregating 2s 9d in the pound, and a menace hanging over us of additional general taxation, we do not want an extra three-pence in the pound, bringing up the total to three shillings. That is one point. Its cogency is selfevident, and we will not enlarge upon it. The money required for charitable aid must, of course, be found in either one way or another, but as we trust that the present dull times, which necessitate so large an amount of aid, are only temporary and will soon pass away, we should be sorry to see such an institution as a poorrate —introduced to meet what, we hope, may prove but a passing emergency —permanently established in our midst. Experience in the Mother Country has abundantly demonstrated the evil effects of a poor-law. The present terrible distress in Great Britain has produced a not unnatural outcry for more State aid, and this has led many earnest persons to a careful examination of the working of the English poor-law system. The loud demand, not only by the unemployed themselves, but also “ by responsible public men on the platform and in the Press,” for relief works, and for a laxer system of out-door relief, has caused attention to be directed to “ the comparative failure of that poorlaw system which, founded upon sentiments of humanity, dealt out-door relief with a lavish hand. It is considered necessary that the Legislators and the public should be reminded, “not so much of the hard and fast doctrines of the economists, but of the hard and startling facts upon which those doctrines were in a great measure founded. With this view the first report of the Commis sioners for inquiring into the adminis(ration and operation of the poor-laws in 1834 has been republished by some of the London papers, and may be perused with much advantage and instruction. It may be explained, in passing, to those who are not conversant with the history of the English poor law, that the \yhole system is virtually based upon the famous statute of Elizabeth £43 EHz- C. As to the manner in which that Jaw was carried out up to 1834, the Conjmisr sioners say:— l

“ It is our painful duty to report that In the greater part of the districts which we have been able to examine, the fund which the 43rd Elizabeth directed to be employed in setting to woik children, and persons capable of labor, but using no daily trade, and In the necessary relief of the impotent, is applied to purposes opposed to the letter, and still more to the spirit of that jaw, and destructive to the morals of the moat numerous plasa, aud to the welfare of all."

It is pointed out that those evils were due to the various expedients for freely affording out-door relief to the able-bodied which prevailed, in whole or in part, for fifty years previous to 1834, and which were introduced or extended with the best intentions in order to alleviate the sufferings among agricultural labourers caused by a succession of bad seasons and consequent high prices of food. The report goes on to say that the relief given in return for parish employment constituted hardly more than 5 per cent, of the whole, although the Act did not authorise relief to be afforded to any but the impotent, except in return for work. The chief reasons for the abandonment of this practice were : 11 (1.) That it was less troublesome to the authorities to afford relief gratuitously; (2.) That working in gangs had a very bad moral effect on the paupers; and (3.) That parish employment did not afford direct profit to any individual. The evidence as to the evils of this system is most striking, and amply proves the which it aroused among the labourers in ’.the districts where it prevailed. It was a thing almost unknown that parish labourers should work as long or as hard as the other classes of labourers; and their wages were usually the same, and not unfrequently higher than those of ordinary labourers. Effective superintendence was almost ont of the question, and a man who gave himself trouble was laughed at by his companions j and iu many places ’ there was created in the minds of the paupers a notion that it was their right to bo exempted from the same degree of labour as independent labourers.’ As a result, employers found the independent labourers remarkably independent; and if any difficulty as to woik or wages arose, it was comman end not unnatural for the labourer to say, ‘ I can get as much on the roads as if I worked for you,’ or, ‘ I gan have 12a a week by going on the roads, and doing as little as I like.’ ’’ Upon this state of affairs the Spectator remarks!—“Eight to employment” is another motto of the Socialists, and it was to such lengths as: these that this country had been, brought in the early years of this: century by acknowledging the “ right, to employment.” The result of this: system is stated to have been that — “ The poor were led to look upon relief as a, right—a right which they enforced through ths, 'Magistrate if the pansh officer refused it. I The former disgrace of being a ‘parish bird | bad almbst, if not wholly, passed away. 'The; certainty of relief had abrogated the Divine aid ni&ral few, If $ >*•»■«» WIT?* ' neither ehall he eat;' it ally destroyed every inducement w

or prudence on the part of the laboring classes . , , We have seen that one of the objects attempted by the present administration of the poor-laws ia to repeal, pro tanio , that law of Nature by which the effects of each man’s improvidence or misconduct are borne by himself and Ms family. The effect of that attempt has been to repeal, pro tanto, the law by which each man and his family enjoy the benefit of his own prudence and virtue. Thus, if a respectable man were known to have saved a little money, he would not in general be employed, because this would be no saving to the rates; whereas the penniless man found work in preference, for his employers knew that otherwise he would come upon the parish. Consequently, the labourers in general not only avoided accumulation, but spent any property they might have in order to entitle them to wages or relief.

Another disastrous result of the system was the ruin which, it was bringing on the community as a whole by the continuous increase of the rates. In one parish there was an actual dereliction of estates from this cause. At Cholesbury, in Buckinghamshire, the sum raised for the relief of the poor had risen from £lO in 1801, to £3G7 m 1832, when “it suddenly ceased, in consequence of the impossibility to continue its collection ; the landlords having given up their rents,the farmers their tenancies, and the clergyman his glebe and his tithes/’ But in other pauperised parishes the same process was going on. Renta were being reduced to half, or loss than half, what they had previously been; and 5a an acre for good land was a common rental, because £1 per acre was a common poor-rate. Farms were being constantly thrown up by the tenants because they could not stand the increased rate; and while the value of land was thus falling, the population in the same districts was increasing. One witness, speaking of his parish, says:— The annual value of the real property, as assessed in 1815, was L 3390; in 1829, L 1959; and it has undoubtedly fallen since then. The population has more than trebled in thirty years, and that in spite of an emigration of considerable amount, at the parish expense, in 1829. The eighteenpenny children will eat up this pariah in ten years more unless some relief be afforded us.

Such being the Mother Country’s experience of the results accruing from a system of wholesale aid and relief works created under a carefully devised and generally excellent poor-law, it behoves these younger communities to exercise extreme caution in introducing a system which has shown itself to be capable of such grave abuse and of bringing about such seriously injurious results. Let us in Wellington at any rate endeavour, if possible, to do without a compulsory poor-rate by providing, through voluntary contribution, the funds required to tide over the present period of dullness, which is in a large measure due to the stagnation in rural work owing to the low prices temporarily ruling for agricultural produce, which has driven an excess of population to seek employment m the large towns.