PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1886.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 7172, 16 September 1886, Page 2

PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1886.

The question of the unemployed diffi-j culty ia getting a very serious one in! the Colonies. Lately a Minister of the Crown in New South Wales was! roughly assaulted by one of these) persons for not immediately acoeding, to -the demands made by him and bid associates. The doctrine of the pro-; fesßional advocates of the unemployed' is that the Government must find work at fair wages, in suitable places, for those who cannot, or who say they cannot, get employment. So far no Goverhtnent has assented to this new doctrine. Governments are, however, yielding to the demands of the organised unemployed in finding them work at less than the current rate of wage 9. The cost of the work so effeoted is generally four times as great as it could be obtained for by open tender by skilled labor. It is therefore apparent that the taxpayers of the colony contribute three-fourths of the cost of work so performed. Able-bodied destitution iv the Colonies is a new form of social difficulty, and the fact that able-bodied labor cannot be suitably employed shows that there is some social error in our ordinary administration. This may be the result of importing labour of the wrong class ; that is, persons who are not suitable for the rough work which the bulk of the able-bodied men in the colony must perform to live. There is only a limited quantity of employment for the skilled artizau, and when the supply of that class of labor is in excess of the demand, difficulties naturally follow ; for skilled artisans cannot, as a rule, take up other work for which they are not adapted by training. So loiig as the Government import this class of labor, or so Ions? as this olasß of their own free will gravitate to the Colony, difficulties will follow. There is another class of labor-- which appears to be always in demaud ; such as good farm hands, single men and boys, and good female domestic servants. If labor- of this class could be obtained at less than current rateß, a large amount would be quickly utilised. The tendency of modern civilisation is for men to gravitate to towns to swell the ranks of the unemployed ; in fact, to risk all the privations which may result from being unemployed rather than face tho hard work and long hours of country life, and its lack of social intercourse. The modern Britisher is a very gregarious animal, and does not care to be far from the centre of a town or village, where he can see and be seen, hear the news of the world, and watch current events. In the country, on an isolated allotment approached by a bad road, this is not possible, and the local news,

and even the news of the world, may be a month old before it reaches him. ' L'his to some minds is an intolerable iufliction — a disability not to be submitted to in a free country. To a large class, back allotments, which may in time become front ones, are uot considered desirable locations. I The only remedy for this is good roads and village centres for social organisation. If the existence of a large • number of able-bodied unemployed continues much longer, the Government will have to face the evil in a more logical fashion than it has hitherto done. The Government has, in fact, said that it is not responsible for finding employment, and that it j can only relieve distress. Practically, however, it has done both when the pressure has been applied with sufficient force during a sitting of thq House.' If it ever • becomes the duty of the Central Government to obtain employment for men at such work as they are best fitted for, it can only be done in large establishments by a system of contracts, under which the workman earns the full amount of his wages. If this is done, the Government will ocoupy . the position ; Tof a large employer , of' labor}.' $jnd in selling its ' manuf aotures " it ' will be competing with private producers. When this arises there will be a demand from the private producers that the Government should not so compete, and consequently not employ labour profitably. The whole question has been threshed out in the disputes between trades and prison labour. The .trades haye -■= demanded -that prisoners should not b.e taught trades in gaols, or employed in producing articles , which fin their sale, compete with outside' liighly-priced labour. The logical conclusion of this is that prisoners should not be usefully em. ployed in gaol. The whole subject is one involved in -difficulty, however viewed or however dealt with. So long as society is sustained on its present basis, when each is free under general laws to do as much as he likes, the responsibility of the Government for the fiuancial success of an individual is very small. The Government, however, only considers itself called upon to act in cases of .destitution, when relief is given. If, however, the- Government begins to consider itself responsible also for the providing of employment, the whole social system must be altered. . The Government will have to deal with each individual, who applies to them for work, and will have to give him only what he is most fitted for, and so regulate the supply of production, and see that there is no glut, or to regulate the remuneration, that there could be no loss. The idle would have to be stimulated to work, and many that are now drones in the hive, such as professionals without work, middlemen where not required, and all the superabundant class of distributors and camp followers would be duly drafted to the special work for 1 which Nature intended them, but which a false civilisation, led by misdirected education and bad legislation, unfortunately dragged them into. When the Government, by common consent, merges into a social system such as this, an intelligent communism will be created, and then it may be admitted that the Government will be bound to find work for, the unemployed. At that period there will be no unemployed except the very old and infirm ; because the necessaries of life will be cheap, and a few hours work a day under an enlightened rule will find abundant means to feed, House, clothe, and educate the population. In the meantime, the able-bodied unemployed must save money when he earns it, by living cheaply, for, if he does not, assuredly he will be dealt with as one, i of the destitute who subsists on public charity during the period of his destitution.

A meeting will be held in the Fitzroy Schoolroom this evening at half-past B^ven o'clock to consider tho advisability oE forming the Fitzroy town and suburbs into a town district. Mr. George Graham, one of tho early settlers in Auckland, and all of whose six sons are located in New Zealand, has been championing the cause of the colony, and the city of Auckland > in particular, very vigorously in the columns of one of the South o£ England papers. Mr. Graham is now living at Brighton. The Secretary of the Public Library has sent the following Communication to tho young ladies who took part in the doll show in aid of the Public Library Bazaar : I am directed by the committee of tho Public Library to convey to the ladies who organised and conducted the doll show and wax works exhibition their congratulations upon the great success achieved, and to cordially thank them for the great pains and trouble they must have taken in order to merit ;a'nd secure such a satisfactory result. His Honor Mr. Justice Richmond remarked during the 1 sitting of ihe Bankruptcy Court, Wellington, recently, that ho was quite ticnid about alterations in the Bankruptcy law. One had to ask every time now, he said, whether any fresh alteration had been iriado in it. The Official Assignee said there had beon nono during tho last session. His Honor suidr thero were alterations in the sessions of 1883, 1884, and 1885, and they myht consider themselves very lucky that thero were none last session. Tho Wanganui Chronicla speaks about tho " uncertainty of being able to ship cattle for Sydney market into the Union Company's boats at the Now Plymouth Breakwater." There is no more '• uncertainty" about doing it here than atany other port in New Zealand. No one can control the weather, and even in tho Auokland Harbor, thu best wo supposo in New Zealand, when a stiff north-easter blows the shipping operations have to bo suspended, aid the water after the gale iscoveied with wreckugo. It appeals they have v ghost in Wellington. It walked last Sunday night at Newlo.i and succeeded in frightening a lady uirnoat out of her sensos. The police are ou the ghost's track. Benefactors. — " When a board of eminent ph) siciuns and chemists announced the disuoviry tlmt by combining some wellknown valimblo remedies a most wonderful medicine was producod, which would cure such a wide ranro of diseases that most all oilier remedies could bo disponeod with, maily wero bkeptioal, but proof of its merits by aotual trial has dispelled nil doubt, aud to-day tho.diacovcrera of that print medicine, Dr. Soulo's American Hop Bitters, uro houurud and blessed by alljas benefactors," Read