The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] A Guaranteed Circulation of Over 7500 Weekly. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1905.

Waikato Argus, Volume XIX, Issue 2979, 12 September 1905, Page 2

The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] A Guaranteed Circulation of Over 7500 Weekly. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1905.

Mu Anderson, the President of the Canterbury Employers’ Federation, ut a dinner in Wellington, said “Trades Unionists had shown employers a splendid example. They had got 53 Acts passed in ten years, notwithstanding that they were only iIU.OUO or 150,000 people out of a total of 1580,000 workers. This was a lesson to the employers in organisation. There was too much overlooking of the consumers Every advance in wages came out of the consumer’s pockets, not out of the employer’s. The workers were now finding out that they had put a bin den upon themselves, as 75 per cent, of the population are workers.” This statement, which is indisputable, means that the 30,001) workers embraced in the Trades Unions receive wages enhanced above the real value at the cost of the remaining 350,000 of the workers in the colony. The wages which are awarded to them by the Arbitration Courts are only possible under high protective duties ; the Cpurts adjust the

wages by .idiling tlic actual value of the work done and the protective duties together. It is a I most singular coincidence that the 350,000 workers who are not Trades Unionists should be content to pay from 25 to ->0 per cent more for what they consume in order that a select few may earn high wages. A largo proportion of the workers who are not Trades Unionists are engaged in the cultivation of the land. Wo are almost tired of pointing out to these men that the wages they receive arc regulated entirely by the value of what they produce to export. This must always he the case so long as a country produces more from the land than the resident population can consume. If those engaged in farming were to demand the same rate of pay as is given to the protected unionist, the land would speedily go out of cultivation, unless Parliament voted a bonus on the export of produce proportionate to the increase in wages demanded. As a matter of equity it is equally just that this bonus should ho given as it is that the labour of others should be given on artificial value by oilier means. Mr Anderson said that the combination of Trades Unionists was a lesson to tbc employers. Surely it should be an equally impressive lesson to all engaged on the land, whether as owner, lessee or labourer, a lesson which should make them combine to a man to compel an alteration in fiscal practice. Many who have not thought this matter out still labour under the delusion that to reduce duties on articles which can he made in the colony would reduce the volume of Customs revenue. The con--trary would bo the case ; if duties were reduced upon all imports, say to 10 per cent, ad valorem, only those industries which are suited to the country would survive and 10 per cent, would he collected on some goods in place of nothing at all under the high tariff. There is no hope that any alteration for the better will take place until the farming community combine and remove from office a set of politicians who have been put into power and held there by Trades Unionists, who are not only not satisfied with the privileges they enjoy, but arc anxious to wipe out those which the land occupier enjoys at the present time. They are opposed to the freehold, and advocate the breaking of contracts by revaluation and increased rental. A man should ho judged by the company he keeps, equally a political party should be judged by the opinions and aspirations of those who keep them in office. The leaders of a political party are very much what the party makes them, and we have arrived at a stage in the history of this colony when the leaders arc ready to bury their most cherished political principles, upon which they have prided themselves for years, in order to retain office. They are ‘ prepared to he led rather than to lead, in order to retain the distribution of the loaves and fishes.