WORTHY OF HIS HIRE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7409, 2 November 1892, Page 4

WORTHY OF HIS HIRE.

A special feature of the Hospital Sunday celebration in Sydney was the evening service at Wesley Church, Lonsdale street, at which the Rev Dr Watkin preached to a large congregation from a text chosen by the President of the Trades Hall Council— The Labourer is Worthy of His Hire. The congregation included a large number of trade representatives who are not adherenta of the church, including the President and. Vice-President of the Trades Hall Council, and the first few seats in the edifice were reserved for their accommodation. The collection which was made was devoted to the Hospital Sunday fund. The rev gentleman in the course of his discourse expressed a very kindly feeling towardathe honest toiler and trade unions, but for the idler he con tended that the time would come when lesislation would be resorted to, and he would be treated according to Scripture — " He that will not work neither shall he eat." The labourer waß entitled to his hire — not abare subsistence, but sufficient to enable him to live in a home where he could observe the laws of health and decency as well as by thrift put by some portion of his money for a rainy dav. Strikes, lookouts and labour troubles were Bigns not of health, but of disease, and it was deplorable that there was seldom anything better than an armed truce between the parties. He believed the charge of the labourers, that they did not receive a fair share of the wealth they helped to create, was true, but there was tyranny and selfishness amongst the poor as well as amongst the rich. The cure for the existing evil was to be found in the application of the Sermon on the Mount, which would disperse all tyranny and every wrong. Aa to how the application could be effected, the preacher said he would invoke the aid of legislation, for though, perhaps, they could not alter men's minds by Act of Parliament, they could so legislate as to prevent them beiDg immoral in trade or unfair in competition. Dr. Watkin also expressed his belief in Courts of Arbitration, and contended that the party who refused to carry out the award of the Court should be regarded as a criminal. In hia concluding remarks he deplored the alienation of so many of the working c?assea in the Colony from the Church. • v