THE UNEMPLOYED.

Star (Christchurch), 25 July 1893, Page 1

THE UNEMPLOYED.

0, THE DIFFICULTY IN NEW ZEALAND. [BT ONE OP THK UNEMPLOYED.] 11. To criticise, find fault, and finally fail to make a serious endeavour to discover a remedy for any particular evil complained of, iB like unto the ways of those meddlesome spirits who " toil not, neither do they spin," yet at the same time wish to impress upon their fellow-men that their efforts to support the cause of common humanity are deserving of more' praise than generally falls to the lot of self-con-stituted agitators of this planet. Perhaps it will be better to tackle the question we have before us without any more beating about the bush, or, as it were, coquetting with the matter we have to deal with, and to attempt to arrive at a SOLUTION OF THE UNEMPLOYED DIFFICULTY in a manner that will, in the first place, nowiee hamper or handicap the movements of the present Government, nor in any way cause thinking men and women to declare that our demands are preposterous. ' It has been Btated, not once, nor twice, but, I venture to Bay, some hundreds of times, that an equitable distribution of the land should satisfy the wanta o? every reasonable man who is willing to earn his daily bread by the fruits of his labour. Now, I venture to assert that one method, and a very reasonable one, too, of relieving the existing distress, would be to select a sufficient quantity of Crown lands suitable for clearance and after- cultivation ; which would, for a reacon to be explained presently, be surveyed with a view to every alternate block only being placed at the immediate command of the individual settler and bis family. Let the Government dispose of the land to the unemployed selector, on the lease in perpetuity principle ; and, further, an opportunity must be given for the farmer in embryo to find the means to earn the necessary bread and cheese to support life while his first year's crop is still very much in prospective. Supposing) for instance, the land is heavily "flooded, then our typical settler must reckon uppn earning not ono but two years' wajrjea from the Government. He would, for inatanoe, have allotted to him aa many acres as he considers he Cftß .leap in go© year; and then, TO KEEP THE BALL ROLLiNwhile his wheat and oats are, as it were, in abeyance, the Minister for Lands will still be supposed to find productive employment for his proUgi upon the adjoining block or section. Finally, given decent weather and a moderate amount of luck, it is reasonable to expect that in the long run at least a decent proportion of those who — mark you — are not adding in the remotest degree to the wealth of the Colony, either in posse or in esse at this moment, will not only cry quits with the Minister who found them the sinews of war, but they will be able to state that they have materially contributed to advance the prosperity of the country by putting into proper cultivation Boil which might have remained for all time either an unproductive swamp or a dreary waste. Now we have got so far, it will be wise to consider one point in dispute that will invariably crop up whenever this proposition is discussed. What are we going to do with those who are neither halt, crippled, lame nor blind, and who are at the same time UTTERLY UNSUITABLE FOB PURPOSES OF LAND SETTLEMENT? Ib is incumbent upon all of us who have dealt with this question to take these comparatively helpless citizens — helpless as far as manual labour is concerned— into our serious consideration, and I have not got the remotest doubt that in the near future a broad and liberal scheme of intercolonial reciprocity will grapple satisfactorily with this portion of the difficulty. The population of the Australasian group of colonies obtains far too many of the necessaries of life from the manufacturing centres of the Old World ; when it is, as we all know, perfectly possible for us to locally Bupply almost every article of daily and domestic use, if sufficient encouragement were given to capitalists to risk their capital. It practically amounts to this: The Old Country is almost compelled to buy our mutton and wool, but surely we are not absolutely forced to purchase her manufactured goods in return. We ought to be perfectly prepared, for instance, to clothe and otherwise equip our people with the products of the soil upon which we dwell. Take a case in point : Are we not fairly entitled to ask the Bailway Commissioners if there is a DEARTH OF ARTIFICERS OF IRON in the Colony ? Is it really a matter of stern necessity which prompted them to send Home for, let us say, half a dozen boilers, whilst ignoring the claims of Mr Jennings and his brethren to be regarded as able and competent workmen. Of course there are persons who will insist that New Zealand can hardly be expected to become a self-supplying Colony all in a moment. True; but I maintain that both as regards the production of either textile fabrics or machinery, and, in fact, of the thousand odds and ends that help to make our every-day life bearable, the

skilled mechanics of these islands are perfectly able to hold their own with their European rivals. It may happen one day that the representatives of every Government in Australasia will be called upon to seriously discues the question of A PROHIBITIVE TARIFF; but the matter is one that needs no more in this article than a passing reference. With Protection in Victoria, Frcetrade in New South Waleß, and a general want of concerted action on the part of the principal Colonies, reciprocity between ourselves and our neighbours can only be discussed in the dim future. I would, in the meanwhile, strongly urge upon the Government of this country to fulfil the promise it has so frequently made both in session and out of session to establish a certain number of the peop'e upon what have become known as co-operative farms, Instead of keeping its word we heat nothing else but rumours of sales of land here, there and everywhere. EUesmere is to go, sundry portions of the Cheviot estate are to be sold, and goodness knows what else is to be pitchforked to tbe highest bidder. It is a distinct pity that the Government could not see its way cleai to dispose of a large quantity of the snrplus labour of New Zealand in the manner I have pointed out above ; and il is to be hoped that the Legislature wil] avoid a bitter conflict with the democratic powers that be, and endeavour to reconsider its decision as to the sale of these estates to those who most probably possess more land than they quite know what to do with. The PRESENT UNEMPLOY ED AGITATION has, we may sa*y, been only partially successful ; but I feel that we may distinctly congratulate ourselves upon the prompt and willing ear which the Minister foi Lands has lent to our just demands, There are already fifteen less destitute men in Christchurch, and if we only keep our legally • constituted representatives "toeing the mark," there is more than a possibility that in a very few weeks there will not be a genuine unemployed son of toil in this town. It ie, perhaps, too much to prophesy of a time when the modern civilized world will number among its multitudinous creeds, nationalities and communities, either social or political, a Utopia peopled entirely by working men and women. A Utopia where the land and the capital will be distributed to everyone's satisfaction, No ! Man is a selfish animal by nature, and selfish he will remain until he ceasee to exist, and accordingly we can only hope to adjust our differences, whether they be great or small, in this world, by judging each other as we would be judged; by meeting our political enemies fairly and temperately, and, if it is required to break a lance in the unemployed or any othei cause, let us not be guilty, under any pretence whatever, of stabbing an opponent in the back.