The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1204, 23 December 1880, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

fraURSDAY; >iDE^MJBER 23, 1880.

The impression is fast gaining ground" in'-lNew J Zeaiari<l • that the : desire of aH,jpar_3ntaofall : ,grades is that •.theirchilclren, of. being put to. a trade . by. jyfii'Gn of their hands; andthfe" sTveat. "of '.tbeir brows, they B^&lLSollow-i, some ft genteel " calling. D.Oi.we; not- witness this to a considerable extent-in Gisborne ? Do we not B«e-bbysiidl-ji§vawa^ precious weeks and months' 'ih* minding offices, and vv hose sp]e" duties iappear .to: consist . of i receiving messages in the aoseiice of employers 5 -taking- letters; to ■ ithe post office, aind 'generally V engaged upon things which can never be : ! df service to them in 'after life. There is a decided and yery general objection to honest' labor -with the hands. ;The JStdUer,. aXondon journal > published in:3h*et:^intei*e3t ' of .the.; meebanciaT firades^l^s ar'yery thoroughly, written article:' ou- '■ the subject. ; : = ; The writer asserts 'that it lis -now ; commonly; considered? Something; like disgrace for menv-td ■ "earn 'there • : bread by labor c&lKngfor thew and sinew, backed by intelligence and prolonged industry ; hence ther rage fpri/geriteel situations which dooms such a large proportion of f 1 our . youth , to . a -life. „pf : -r helpless penury. "In "an. '. old ; . country ; " like England, where rank and wealth are popular idols, ; and what are called the lbwei^' orders ar«- almost forced to regard thdrhselvfes ; a^j an inferidr o£being«, , . ifc T is of course r .very, havd. to maintain ! !tfiej dig?iifcy pf \ -labour,.' A-!& is to no purpose that modern prophets, like (, ' v Mr. f ;,- C^BLTtEj •^ cr/^aloud -that tliereisaplßreiimal'Abbleifessin'work ; the=lahourer_.-uayk he; counted -irworthy of'}, hisl hire-^-arid . a slender pittance rb-'orten' is--^bu£ he receives iib^espect' -either frbnrhjs superiors or Kis.e^als^and 'inferiors he? bas none, except perhaps '^he' inmates i 'of the workhouse. . It is, in a word, not respeatgblerbo. >;? y . . ~ Ditch and delve, Or grasp -with sinewy 'hand and mattock's helve, A^d c the t -^onseguence isr that "Wery kind'df^nianuai iabbui", and especially -tinskiUecl' laboui-^is nervously shunned by' W e' ranks of • the-^great middle class : : "a-ndl>ery,l properly so, IsHurihedi ;_For /the! cnnditioh of the j-Bfigl-JSh^labourer is more like that of a-pariafc f than .a -\ citizen,- , while even rgl^led^^orkmen of all descriptions are included* sunder : the ; insulting, denomination, ftttfteiowwjordprs. The '^rsan'jiii'dSFten better, off, than thouraa.p^ of tile .class rtoks "imme;&fejy/al).bve him,. .but; such is the v ngi<iity ' **-of' l _.fc>diai that -the .latter wbuld^ -rather endure *the r - gVe^teSb" -privations than' forfeit .the..S^bnih^!life in which they were iDipi^Vj^^Tp:, d/a 'so would-be to lose; cas^-Avhichjin:. an^ artificial state of BOCiety is almost the deepest disgrace _thatr 4 .can-.. be. incurred. It is easy J tb at. the homage which .the ( average ' * middle : class ' English-: ; toab_ "pays' to- respectability -^mubh' 'easier ™.an : \ tp ,'shpw , how he could; maintain his self-respect without such sentiments j though it cannot be denied ; i-lidfc ; h^p^Citliar.;n6tipns ai*e f -.onietinies apt to render him : hot a' little ridicu- ' loUS. •'- If%is : struggles to keep himself in his pvopei'* rank are often in the .-highejstidegr.ee pathetic, his endeavors * .emKtbevother hand .to attain a higher place in the social .system are not less; seldom as ludicrous as anything that twa's^'eyer Wagihed the ; wittiest flatirist^^But/this middle' class sensi-tivenessdn-regardto the thing so often Y^eerl^ndLT^w&dSftn'derSbhj-i .title of i*espectability isin-the main a proper ,' %h« J MdeW(liyiv6idable'feelin • as that.class"is,! ? lsßt/we'(ln the nobility , m^Mo^m^^^ arid %c j indus^^'^r-M^on the othei'j j ft9Ptlier njajpe,j '^ / not indeed for mbrality in the abstract, 1 , Bj^MßM>l^|j^M^(hfc nat*f.ir»il)-i- j

moral' stage which a nation has reached in its progress, whether upWard or downward ; and it is a mere truism, -to say that only exceptional minds rise abor© the common opinions and prejudices of their class. Tbe misery of course is that class feeling should be so strong, and that in-all societies it should have a tendency* paradoxical as it may sound, to grow stronger in proportion as such societies grow more civilised. The dignity of labor at any rate is recognised only in Utopia, or if it may said to be also in the earliest stages of a community, it is merely by way of making a virtue of necessity • for it is astonishing to observe how soon young countries adopt the fashions of thought that domineer over their elders. Every colony has had an opportunity of instituting a better kind of social life than that of the Mother Country, and in the first years of . most of our colonies it almost seemed as if the Golden Age were about to return ; but, as we. have just said, the simplicity of manners that characterised these young" communities was only a matter of necessity/ and in all of them the worship, of respectability in its worst form is already a great deal more outrageous than in the, older civilisations. We have, as we have reipeatedly remarked, grown genteel: before our time ;'■ for not to say that; our gentility is rather a Brummagem kind of -article, it is evident that, the resources of the Colony can only be developed by means of hard work in which the hands are more concerned than the head. The blue jumper has been laid aside too soon, and the spade and the plough in far too many instances abandoned for the pen. It is somewhat sad to think that Mr. Gladstone's advice, as quoted in the paragraph from the Builder to which we referred, is as applicable in New Zealand as in England— " Working men," he says," should for: themselves, and especially for their children, try more to eievate handicraft, and less to escape from it into the supposed paradise of pen and ink." The true dignity' of labour— -of honest work with the hands — is the highest kind of learning that can be taught in a young country ;it is certainly a great, deal more important than much of the trash — the logic of grammar, for example, and other nonsense ..of the kind-^-which the Colony is at present trying, at much cost and pains, to cram into its hopeful youngsters.