South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1890.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6245, 18 June 1890, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1890.

The number of people who arrived in the colony by sea during May was 990, the departures numbered 1850 ; difference 860. Multiply by twelve, 10,320, That is an ugly yearly rate of exodus to be still going on. And those who know say that the officials do not fignre up nearly the true numbers, so that the loss is still more. The House of Representatives had better look very seriously to Retrenchment this session, Retrenchment in men, women, and children. The cry is that the country wants more population, and all the time population is being wasted at the rate of 10,000 a year. They say each man is worth about £2OO a year to the country. Well, of the departures 1030 were adult males : monetary loss £206,009 ! Women and children must be worth half as much : 820 at £IOO, £82,000 ; total loss £288,000.

The Charitable Aid Board of South Canterbury manage to rub along without any striking symptoms of friction on either side of the administion; there are no complaints from either the recipients of aid or those who find the money. It seems that this is not so everywhere. At Christchurch “ one receiving charitable aid ” writes to the Press advocating a “ strike ” for more food. From what he says the Christchurch “ ration ** is not only not a liberal one, but a very stingy one. He says he gets each week a ticket for Is 5d worth of groceries and 4d worth of meat, equal to 3d per day. If he went to gaol he would have at least twice as much and quite as good food, and lodging, clean clothing, and plenty of blankets for the winter.

One of the “ principles ” which the deputation of the Railway Servants Society is trying to persuade the Commissioners to adopt has, in particular, our hearty approval. They say the men are quite content only to work fair hours, and “ do not want overtime ” ;

they were “quite content with eight hours’ work. ” They offered a suggestion for getting over the difficulty in the case of train men who cannot possibly get their day’s work done within eight hours, such as those who run to one end of a branch line in the morning and return in the evening, the suggestion being that the men should be changed during the week. It does seem rather expensive to pay wages for the time such men are “ standing ” idle during the day, but, as the deputation pointed out, the men are not allowed to engage in any other work. “If the Commissioners claimed a man body and soul they should be prepared to pay him for it.” The difficulties, of whatever kind, can be overcome in some way. The principle of “no overtime” should be recognised as far as possible, not only in the interests of the men in employment but in those out of employment. There Is no advantage to be gained by nominally shortening the hours of labour, and keeping them long under the name of “ overtime.”