COLONIAL OCCUPATIONS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2048, 28 July 1875, Page 3

COLONIAL OCCUPATIONS.

Under this.heading, "The Loafer in the Street" writes as follows in the Canterbury Press:— : The second part of the. volume I am endeavouring to review dwells at considerable length on the subject of the occupations of the people. This is a subject to which evidently much pains and attention has been bestowed by Mr Didsbury, and I.cannot refrain from congratulating hin on the result of his labours. I may here remark that I offered the editor of this paper to write a series of leading articles upon this subject alone. He has declined my offer in terms too cutting to repeat at present.. I only mention this is case really good judges of reviewing should think that I had not expanded the subject sufficiently. I shall, however, expand so far as I can. It would appear that we have a number of people making a living in the usual style ; by commerce, agricultural, professions, or what not; but I'm surprised to learn that there are 12,206 people working away at what arc termed indefinate and non-productive occupations. I should like this to have been made a little clearer, but upon second thoughts I can perhaps understand it. ; It is impossible to be as lucid as one could wish in these cases." In the indefinite lot there are probably many people of my class, and I should say the unproductive lot were composed mainly of statesmen, ministers, reporters, actors, Government clerks, and drapers' assistants. These professions don't get paid for overtime, and are subject to abuse in proportion to their unpaid, responsibility. I may be wrong, but I should say they might be considered unproductive to themselves and families. I find there are 5088 persons who buy and sell, keep or lend money, houses, or goods of various kinds. How sad a thought jt is that I am personally acquainted with so few of them. It would be an "interesting addendum to this statistic if the compiler had been in a position to state the average, interest charged by the money-lenders, and the number of borrowers. As Stuart Mill or Garibaldi (I forget which) remarks, nothing imparts so much vitality to a young country as a majority of workers on borrowed capital. lam glad to observe that we possess 344 persons of property and rank not returned under any occupation. This portion of the return ought to be published in England, bat the next item ought to be kept dark. This is the item 1 refer to :—" Persons supported by the community and of no special occupation, 2 230." Of this crowd four are entered as dependent on their relation ■— oh, quaterque beati! How gladly would I make fire.' Those dependent on tneir friends we find no mention of, but had Mr'Didsbury taken up this branch of the census, what a crowd there would hare

been. In JSTew Zealand there is only one professional Pauper or Begger, and Canterbury owes him. I wish here to make a personal statement. I wish here to observe that I am not the person alluded to. I solemnly swear I'm not. A friend of mime makes a good thing in the following manner :-~He meets you, say on Kialto or at Tattersall's. He calls you aside. He writes in his pocket-book : " Could you lend me a shilling P I'm starving!'' He gets the bob. He drinks it at once. This man spoils legitimate loafiing business to some extent. He may be the wretched pauper alluded to; I'm not. I, like many moro people we know, love to prey on my friends, but I'm not such a fool as to publish it. Asa set-off to the solitary professional pauper, there are, I'm glad to find, actually 127 capitalists entered in the . census paper as such. How much I feel I could love any of them. It may be interesting <o some to know that irregularity creeps in even among the professions. I find there are seven irregular medical practitioners.. This don't affect tlie public much, because you can alwayi pick them out; but what stuns me is to learn that there are 21 irregular clergymen in the Colony. Now here I fancy Mr Didsbury might have been more explicit. I for one should like to know what an irregular clergyman is. It is natural to suppose that the ministers of each and every denomination reckon all outside the pale of-tbeir own particular church as irregular; but what are irregular clergymen in the eyes of the censors ? I can admire the truthful spirit which prompted the solitary New Zealand pauper to enter himself as such in the chronicles of the Colony, but a fortiori, as Mr Euclid so • frequently observes, I can admire the frankness of the 21 gentlemen who announce themselves as ecclesiastical Bashi-Ba-zouks. The Chinese, I see, also boast of three irregular clergymen and two irregular medical men. They, the Chinese generally here I mean, don't seem to go in for matrimony, because out of 4,816 Mongols there are only two ladies. They have, however, their hairdressers, artists, tailors, commission agents, &c, just like we have. The occupations of the people, as detailed by Mr Didsbury, are very interesting to read. 1 observe under the heading of defence that we possess, apart of course from volunteers, 37 army officers and three soldiers. .The navy is represented 'by 16 officers and one sailor. Our defence force is certainly well officered; but the one sailor with his 16 officers ought to have a good time in case of war. Among the indefinite occupations alluded to above, I find 2 sub enumerators, 4 tramps, 2 travellers (I wonder what they travel on), 1 temperance collector (a good billet, too, I wish I had it), 1 tourist, 1 cadet, 1 relieving officer, and 23 agents. In the class connected wi'h exhibitions, the following appears : 2criclceters, lone-legged dancer. 1 gaming-house keoper. 6 circus performers, 5 pedestrains, and 1 property man. The work before me closes with an account of the different occupations of members of Universities. The 'varsity men seem to be all in lines. In fact, this portion of the statistics is not a very strong argument in favour of high-class education. There are University men officiaing as station servants, bushmen, butchers, labourers, sawyers, coal-miners, and furniture makers. The criminal . population is set down at 659, but I expect there are a few more about who are not entered in the census. I know a number of most respectable people even in this Province who could go into this crowd without being out of place. There are a number of first-class criminals to be met with here at any time, but their friends don't know in. It's a droll old shop is this world. I hepe I have written enough to convince you that MrDidsbwry's work is well worth persual. I feel I have not i done justice to the subject— not half so ' much justice as I could, were I paid by ! the line ; but a study of the occupations ' and. conjugal condition of the people— vols. 5 and 6—will teach the reader many things he never knew before, and clearly proves that we are a great, if not a solvent, lot of colonist.