MR VAILE ON THE GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION.

Thames Star, Volume XXX, Issue 9110, 2 July 1898, Page 4

MR VAILE ON THE GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION.

We beg to acknowledge the receipt of a brochure by Mr Samuel Vaile, entitled "The Government and the Working Man : Failure of the Recent Labor Legislation." It is a tabulated indictment of the Government itr dustrial and land policy, and an effort to show that the labor legislation has failed in its primary aim—the raising of the wage earners, without which no social progress is possible. Says Mr Vaile:—"How to improve the position of the great mass of workers has been the study of my lifetime, for, like other thinkers, I have seen that the only way of effecting any real lasting social improvement is by uplifting the great army of wageearners. In the nature of things, in every community, the vast preponderance of the people must be wageearners. No matter what circumstances may arise, very few can be directors. In the army and navy the officers are few, the men are many. So it is in the industrial army ; the leaders must be few in number, the workers many." It is the alleged failure of the Government to elevate and dignify labor that forms the subject of Mr Vaile's essays. The writer also compresses into two lines of figures a condemnation —or rather, a belittlement —of the mining legislation. This i 3 how he does it :—

" Table showing the effefct of the increased expenditure and of recent labor and mining legislation on our mining industries;—

11 Could there possibly be a better proof of the utter failure of the recent legislation than the fact that the total value of all our mineral products has only increased £73,555 during the five years the present party has been in power, and this in spite of the enormous amount of English and foreign capital invested in our mines daring that period ?" To cite a financial improvement (however small) as convincing proof of an " utter failure," seems to suggest a rather peculiar habit of thought. It lays Mr Vaile open to one of two charges— either of exaggeration in the use of words, or of biassed judgment. In fact, 'this effort of the writer to belittle the Government's mining policy is suggestive of a straining of facts and a rather limited knowledge of the subject as a whole, the "foreign capital" gag being dragged in as a sort of ballast. In other departments, Mr Yaile shows a masterly grasp of facts and figures, and his arguments will take a dear of answering.

1891 1896 Ino'se I I l_ I£l £ I £ Value of Gold and Silverproduced 1,012,639 1,052,017 39,378 Value of all other minerals including coal and kauri gam 828,047 862,221 34,177