RECRUITING IN VICTORIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 194, 26 December 1868, Page 3

RECRUITING IN VICTORIA.

— ♦ — The Australasian of Dec. 12 haa the following : — ln spite of his first rebuff, Captain Stack has perseverved in his effort to enlist men in Victoria for his Maori campaign, and although tbe inducements he offers are, even if religiously fulfilled, not brilliant, he has succeeded in attracting a number of applicants. Many of the men who have rushed at this opportunity are doubtless under a temporary cloud, and would be rejoiced to get safely out of the legal jurisdiction of the colony. There are others, however, who have no such pressing reasons for flight, who could stay reputably enough if they chose, and yet elect to go. With these it is a love of change which carries them away. Were it not for this strong desire implanted in their breasts, they would not willingly leave a colony where labour at present is at a premium, for the doubtfnl advantage of 5s per diem, and being shot at by the Maoris. From all the country districts of Victoria come complaints just now of a scarcity of hands to do the farmers' work. As much as €s a day, with rations, is offered without response. In the faceof such a demand, we are not surprised to find one country paper remarking thatit would set down any able bodied man who affected to be unable to procure work, as an unmitigated loafer. The men who, while such terms are being offered, go away to New Zealand ou the promise of ss. and the chance of being shot, do not constitute the only eccentric characters on tbe Victorian stage. There is a far more vexatious and reprehensible class, who will not work here nor go away to live elsewhere. It is a curious circumstance connected with agricultural and pastoral life in this colony, that a vast humber of lazy-looking and stalwart men appearand sue for work when work is not readily obtainable, but keep carefully out of call when employers are looking for them. These fellows are as well known to the squatters and farmers as the scab or the blight. They are good eating men when food is given away, but have no stomachs for it when it is to be earned. Where they migrate to is a mystery ; but like tbe swallows in Winter, as sure as there is honest work to be done, they disappear. If this class could be secured by Captain Stack, and set to fight the Maoris, it would be a boon to both colonies. Writing on the same subject, the Melbourne Leader says : — Victorians are altogether too modest to have appreciated Capt. Stack's mission adequately. All he wanted was two hundred of our men in order to complete the conquest of the Maoris, whi.h bad been found impossible by the New Zealand colonists themselves. Seeing that New Zealand is so much older a colony, one might have imagined that in au extremity so sore — when European women and children were massacred by a relentless enemy — the adult male population would have b.en more than sufficient for their own defence; and what especially puzzles us is to find the deficiency limited to that little two hundred. Is all the fighting to be done by the Victorian contingent, while the Old Identity hold tbeir hats ; or are our two hundred required merely to give a tone to the national army ? Is there a New Zealand laureate equal to the task of chronicling the various oharges sure to be made by our two hundred ? Surely a more silly measure of the kind has never been more absurdly carried out. If tho New Zealanders are unable to take their own part, they are extraordinary specimens of the British race; hut at least they might be careful of themselves, and accept our offer to lend them our own gallant defenders of the 14tb Regiment. It is in raw levies they seem to put their trust, however; and their ad-

mirable agent, Captain Stack, has taken care that his noviceo in the military art shall also be individuals of unblemished reputation. Fancy a recruiting sergeant simultaneously obtaining the assistance of a medical man and a conductor of private inquiries, and the astonished recruits discovering that they have to pass the detective as well as the doctor ! Indeed, the whole business is too ridiculous for serious comment ; the crowning absurdity being to see a Melbourne journal describing Captain Stack's success as a proof of the badness o! the times. Perhaps, on the whole, the labour market never wore a more cheerful appearance than now ; disengaged tradesmen in the building line are not to be had for love or \ money ; even pick and and shovel men can have their 7s a-day. Yet because a small number of persons unfit for colonial work cannot get suitable situations right off, the condition of the colony is to be stupidly misrepresented. Really we wish Captain Stack's number was not limited to two hundred. We could spare a considerable number more, nnd they would be right willing to go, too — provided there was to be no work or fighting.