CORRESPONDENCE.

Colonist, Volume XXXII, Issue 5584, 28 August 1889, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE MUOH ABUSED UNEMPLOYED.

To the Editor of tht Colonist.

Sib,—l am not muoh of a pen worm, but with your permission I wish to make a few remarks, for the past few weeks, both in town and country any one may have seen large numbetß of good workmen out of work, ihesa men represent various trades and professions, end amongst them are to be fonnd as steady men and good workman sa ever handled tools. I may here state that the unemployed of this city have made frequent appeals to the Public Works, and Lands Department and alia to our city member to see whether some relief works ooald not be started in the neighborhood, with tha object of providing work for & few of those who are most in need of it, but after many disheartening and fruitless attempts it was at last decided by the Poblia Works Department to send those applying, to some plaea on the Pelorus watershed. The wages offered were j4s per day at taskwork, bo that that amount could not be exceeded. I have seen no adver-

tiswnent in the local press that mob works have been commenced, but I have been told on good authority that four Nelson men did go out to nee the nature'of the work. According to their i'atements they were obliged to return, there being no reason in the prices offered foe the piece work. Now it is a common thing to bear strong comments made by those who are more favored, concerning tfce unemployed standing about the street oornerß Those fortunate enough just at present to be employed, view tht thing in a very different light to those who are less fortunate. I hava heard it said "Why do not those unemployed fellows put their, gvrags upon their backs and go up to the gold regions of the Upper BolUr and look lor gold, far they Bsytb.Gr* is plsnty of groand that will pay from 4s t-o 5a a day" Allow me Mr Editor to flatly contradict that last assertion. The statement

ia false, bat if it were true, there are not half a dozen ot the unemployed in a position lo go cut and seaich for gold, nor would the . storekeepers be prepared to stand to such; men who are without means till Biioh time as they

found gold bearing ground, and got it ready for gworking, for however easily wo*ked a claim may be, it takes time and money before the gold can be got. I mys>elf was golddigging on the Upper BuUer twenty years ago and tbs average earnings at that time wave only 4a a day, while * good njany paid at the rata of three miles atr hour when the specks did not turn oat. lam of the lame opinion »a many othsr old diggers who have coughed it among the mountain gullies of this pi'ovioea - that there are geverai shallow creeks in different directions that would give the unemployed wages, providing there wen swag or paok tracks out to iet the men get about and explore tbe country. Anyone accustomed to prospering in mountain gullies, knows x>el, what tiring fatiguing work it ia carrying tools and provisions through the dec 86 forest where the undergtowthis almost always dripping wet, and consequently progress is slow; where men have to creep eb<J climb more than walk. If one quarter of lbs mon«y which has beea wasted on unproductive roads constructed to pteftso o»eor two individuals had been spent ia cutting such tracks as I have saggested, I am oertain there would not be no many un•aaploye* wandering through the country or

standing at street cornoM, and moat hkeK business in Nelson would be more; insk to day. I will just mention a few of those on product!re bads. There is for instance thi Oabie Bay road, on whieb, the only Nguta traffic is ona grocera earl a week—a roat made alongside an excellent road requiring uo keeping ia repair. Than comes the Bij Bush and Black valley road which coal hundreds ot pounds to repair, a road thai has been in excellent order for years, and ©v.ci which I can"with truth say one cart does not pass in six weeks on the average. It is grown over with wild groundsel and fescue grass. and there ,has been a gang of single1' men employed on it all last summer, and Uc~e they are still. Another road that cost thousands to make was from the Tadmor diggings to the junction of the Little Hope. That road has been deolared open for the last two years, bat I am certain there has not been a cart throngh, and it is not safe for man or hoi'se-back-it would not eren carry a wheelbarrow. It is a orying shame, and a down: right waste of public money to make unused roadi for the rich while there are any number of struggling settlers who cannot get to their lands, and diggers who oannot get into the interior to prospect. Tracks to suit these would be more prodnotive than unused roads to the ranohea of Sheep Kings. From my experience of the Nelson unemployed they are fairly good average men, equal to any to. be found in other parts of New Zealand. They are civil and mostly frugal. As a body they are as moral and well-behaved a gang of men aa ever I had charge of. I know, however/that they have been called a beer drinking lazy set of fellows, but they are not, as norks carried out by them last winter at Cable Bay will show. I say they have been jhe most snubbed, condemned, sneered at. and illtreated set of men in the Colonies. How in the name of common eenae can a man be expected to work at high pressure for 33 or 4a a day, when he is not really of the navvy class, and has to liva on the poorest of food and little of it. meeting, too, with no encouragement, and knowing that his miserly wages ara begrudged. Then in the winter months there is on the average quite one wet day in a week. I leave the people to jntfga what there ia for a man to keep two homes on, to pay house tent, get firewood and all the necessaries for a family. It is plainly to be seen that the man's earnings are required to Bupport the family. What, then, do these well-paid Government officials expect the man to live on and keep honest. To all appearances the Government offloials intend to put pressure upon the working man till ho will !be compelled to eat tanner's bark. Can any Gavernmsnt officer answer mo this question -Why should a gang of single men be employed all last summer and winter on tho Belgrove Big Bush road [at'Os and 7s a day, when at the same time very many gaod working married men .have remained for months unemployed, with the result that their families have been thinly olad and short of bread? I have the knowledge of several of these raarriei men who are unemployed, and of the single men who are employed, mostly all of them have been under me at one time or other. It is a crying shame to offer married men 4« a day for work in a i dripping wet bush in the Pelorus when single ] men aie employed at near double the pay, ] they not being better workmen. Whoever ; the officer is who gave such one-sided instructions, and had them carried out, he is simply devoid ef human reason, o£ sympathy, and of pity. Yonrß, Ac, JOHATHAH BrOUGH.