Mr Sydney Webb.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7432, 29 November 1892, Page 2

Mr Sydney Webb.

He is one of the Fabian essayists, and he haß been so struck with the work of the New Zealand Labour Bureau and the , practical character of our factory legisla- , tion that he has brought these things to , the notice of the Labour Commission, ! which, regdrdleßs of Governments, goes on, not, we hope, for ever, but to an early ! and feasible conclusion. In doing this work- ( Mr Webb made such commendatory remarks ' as one might expect from one occupying his 1 position in the world of reformatory j earnest modern thought. Here is an ' .organisation which brings the labourer , and the employer face to face at - the public expense, acting on the i principle that it ia cheaper to keep the ( people in the country than to let them J drift away to the land of the stranger in } search of that employment which io abundant at home. It has, moreover, a i system which aims at eventually making 1 producers oE the labouring people now ' working for their daily bread. That the ( vast capabilities of auch an institution as , the Labour Bureau havo struck the ad- i vaneed thinkers, who are appalled by the ; hopelessness of the great Labour problem • of old countries, is a thing but natural. They will realise, no doubt, that onr Bureau has two great advantages : abundant employment and abundant land. These . advantageß. are not present i (they are conspicuous by their absence) , at Home? nevertheless the following ( of our lead will do our English brethren i

_uch good. With the factory system here is a difference, viz., that nothing irevents its adoption in the far more irowded factory country they have to deal dth over the water.