Our Wellington Letter.

Opunake Times, Volume VII, Issue 310, 27 August 1897, Page 2

Our Wellington Letter.

Wellington, August 20th. THE FACTORIES AOX. It seems to be a recognised thing in these times that such departments as can be made to pay their way, or even a portion of their cost shall do so. That is why fines are fixed at such a high figure when a landholder is sued by a rabbit inspector, who has not to prove that the farmer has not done his best to keep the law, but has only to allege that he is not satisfied with the means adopted. The magistrate has no discretionary power at all, and the fines come in handy as revenue, A sheepowner, with a carefully kept flock, may be honored with a visit of one of the Stock Department, and it may so happen that he lodged the previous night in a country pub and accumulated, unknown to himself, an insect or two. They might transfer themselves to a sheep he is examining, and the discovery is sufficient to base a charge of the owner having an infected flock. No matter if the owner has a hundred other sheep examined which are guiltless of any unclean thing. The fact of one being found is sufficient, when supported by the expert testimony of a Stock Inspector to convict, and the owner of the sheep is lucky if he escapes obliteration as a farmer. But the Inspector has done something which brings in cash to the Treasury to pay his salary and he is deemed worthy of an advance at the end of the year. So much for country Inspectors. The city variety is still more ingenious in faking up cases. Never a week passes but some respectable tradesmen in charged with some riduculous trumped-up charge of evasion of the Holy Factory Act. The proprietor of the largest drapery establishment in the city was brought up this week for permitting parcels to be delivered during prohibited hours. It was shown that the work was done by the servant of a man who contracted for the work and the draper had nothing to do with the matter, and the case was dismissed. He was a singularly fortunate man and the magistrate will probably be removed to some up country town for departing from the established custom of spoiling the Egyptians when a chance offered. Magistrates have been punished for less that that in recent times. But it is a beautiful development of the Spoils to the Victors System, which legalises the plunder of law abiding people in order to provide the means to pay hungry political parasites who grow more numerous, clamorous and greedy day by day. Having watched the progress of this system carefully both in New Zealand and Victoria, it is evident to me that our Liberals are led by their Victorian counterparts led by one Trenwith, who seems to be an own brother of Dr Seddon as a friend of the working man. There the inspectors are doing their best to stamp out Chinese laundries, and such an establishment with one celestial in it is a factory and must be registered and visited by the inspectors. The Chinamen are willing to obey the laws and the perplexing regulations, but they cannot control the weather, and a certain Inspector recently dragged one to Court for having clothes hanging out to dry before factory hours allowed him to work. The laundryman’s defence was in the form of a question If it rains on Monday, why not dry him linen allee time on Tuesday?” This was held to be prevarication and Hop Li was fined. He elected to take it out. And now the inspector advises the Government that the Act should be amended so as to provide that in a laundry ten women must be employed to one man. The lowest course would be to prohibit Chinamen altogether instead of charging them a heavy poll tax and then persecuting them with such ridiculous laws. The whole aim and tendency of the labor legislation and the way it is administered is offensive chaptrap for the purpose of gratifying the worst desires of the ignorant. A FREE TRADE POLICY. The cablegrams to-day tell us that the Dingley Tariff in America, which went further in protection than anything ever hoard of before, has resulted disastrously for the revenue and a falling off of a hundred million dollars is anticipated. Nearer home we have a convincing object lesson on this economic question in the neighboring colonies of N.S. Wales and Victoria, where the former has enjoyed a modified Free Trade for about two years and prospered exceedingly, while Victoria has rapidly dropped behind under a tariff very much resembling our own. A Victorian, in lecturing on the subject recently, pointed out some anomalies to show how suicidal Protection was for Victoria. Among other things he showed that while Protection-made starch was retailed in Sydney at 3Jd per lb, its price in Melbourne was od- Imported horse shoe nails in Sydney 4d to 5Jd, in Melbourne 7d to 9d, and the Vic-

torian made article 5Jd to 7d. Flour wag sold ia Sydney at £l2 per ton and £ls in Melbourne, and bread is Id per loaf dearer in the latter than the former. The most convincing items were the prices at which goods were retailed iu two towns on the Murray, the boundary river of the two colonies. At Moatna, N.S.W., matches are 2£d per doz.: Echuoa, Victoria, 4d ; oatmeal, Is 3d at one and Is fid at the other per 7lb bag, and so on through all the necessaries of life. A Protectionist, in reply, claimed that Victoria had more miles of railway and more post offices than N.S.W., and the population of Victoria had increased under Protection by leaps and bounds. But he admitted the paying of £SOOO a year for the privilege of having 12 men engaged in making axles. We are just as badly off in New Zealand, but have not the opportunities of comparison that the Australians have, and very few people think of what an enormous proportion of their annual payments for necessaries of life go into protecting industries for the sake of keeping up wages for the town workers. No thought is given to the injustice of protecting the city workers while the country producers have to fight against all comers. It is a poor rule that wont work both ways, and if the producers of butter formed a trades union and determined that every employee should earn £3 per week of 44 hours, and that butter should be protected by a duty of fid per lb to compass this object, there would be a terrific howl in the Trades Council about raising the cost of living. But where is the logical difference between making a farmer pay a protective duty of 4s per pair on his watertights and the bootmaker paying fid more for his butter. As things are the unionists combine and get everything they ask for. The country representatives of Seddonian electorates, whether town or , country, simply obey orders without referenco to the effect of such things on their constituents, MINISTERIAL RIVALRY. In well-informed circles it is understood that those two remarkable statesmen, the Hons. Hall-Jones and T. Thompson, are outvieing one another in inviting ridicule. The Minister of Justice and Defence has displayed a sort of mania for transferring magistrates, wardens, and policemen from one place to another because some political organisation demanded the removal of officials whose crime had apparently been doing their duty, and so landing a supporter in gaol or having been fined. These removals cost money to the State, and inconvenience, loss, and sometimes ruin to the parties removed. But Mr Thompson is at his best as Defence Minister. He is a sticker for the army under his administration being uniformly and tastefully apparelled, and the semi-naval torpedo corps were lately stripped of the clothes that suited their occupation and put into artillery uniforms, which are about as appropriate for torpedo work as a diving suit for a blacksmith. The alteration costs the men £lO per head, and is stopped out of their wages. This gives work to the tailors, and they have a strong and insistent trades union. That happened a month or two ago. This week the City Eifles had new uniforms made in accordance with the regulations with blue collars. The Defence Department’s artistic eye is offended with the {esthetic effect of blue and have ordered red to be substituted. The volunteers, who have suffered long, are contemplating disbanding and forming a rifle club, so as to be clear of the Hon. Thompson and his advisers. Then Mr Jones performed a very curious feat this week. As Minister for Public Works he called tenders for conveying a hundred tons or more of railway material to a coasting port. Two tenders were sent in, one fid per ton lower thau the other. The low ons was rejected on the ground that it was too low, but it so happened that the steamer which was refused on such extraordinary grounds was manned by members of the Seamen’s Union, while the other had a blackleg crew. The owner of the former told his crew that under the circumstances ha must cut down wages or lay up the ship. They at once marched to the Hon. Jones’ office, and said *• This sort of thing wouldn’t do." He, good man, was open to reason, and it was arranged that the owner should send in a fresh offer at fid per ton more, and he get the contract, and everybody was happy except the owner of the other steamer.