Wanganui Chronicle, AND PATEA – RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. NULLA DIES SINE LINEA. TUESDAY, 17th MARCH, 1874.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 2382, 17 March 1874, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle, AND PATEA - RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. NULLA DIES SINE LINEA. TUESDAY, 17th MARCH, 1874.

Time was, and not very long ago, when " poor klodge," the farm labourer, was constantly exhorted by the ' Times ' and other London' journals to mend his fortune by emigrating, and to senk in Canada oi Australia that comfort and independence which he could never expect to enjoy in his own native land. Although the ' Times ' warmly supports the landed interest, it made the.se recommendations freely and without tear of oli'mice to the farmers and landed gentry, since there was a superabundance of firm hands, and the charitable aid necessary to the support of the surplus agricultural population was a heavy tax upon the richer class of country residents, who were only too happy to get rid of the idlers. Moreover, the farm labourers of Hmgland have for so long been unable to discern their own interests in this matter that it might safely be calculated that the appeals made to them would, for the n:ost, part, be thrown away, and it was unlikely that they could be so aroused to the benefits of emigration as to seriously affect the labour market thereby. This, however, was a mistake, The farm labourers, after a sleep cf centuries, have awakened to modei'n life. Following the example of the town workers, they have formed " Agricultural Unions/ insisted upon higher wages under the penalty of a strike, and despatched emissaiies to various parts of the world to ascertain how far their circumstances would be improved by emigration. Mr Arch, the ptiuie leader of this movement, recently visited Canada for this purpose, but, from the published accounts, was not favorably impressed with that Colony. Haul as the faim labourer has to work in England, he has to work still harder in Canada, where, indeed, his toil becomes almost slavery. Moreover, the climate of the com try is very rigorous. What report Mr llolloway, who has come to New Zealand on a similar mission, will send home, can only be surmised, but, at all even's, we can offer far greater advantages to the poorer class of emigrants than Canada, and when once this fact becomes known throughout the English Counties, there will be no lack of emigration hither, despite the long voyage.

This agitation has caused the ' Times' to sing a different tune An emigration of 10,000 agricultural labourers in the spring of 1874, under one management, has been determined upon in England, and the farmers are alarmed. The loss of 10,000, perhaps, would not make a material difference in the rate of wages, but they pei-fectly comprehend that this number is but the vanguard of a large army of agricultural emigrants. Wages have already risen, it is true, and the labourer is now able to obtain comforts which he never looked for twenty years ago ; but, nevertheless, the independence of life which the -Colonies, one and all, offor to the labourer, is a benefit not yet accessible to him at. home, and is sure to weigh d-.nvn th,e scale in favor of the Gclonies. The result may be serious. As the ' Times ' says — " The whole question of emigration is changing in aspect when it begins to be seriously doubted whether we can spare more men. The, true answer can no longer be disguised. It is that we cannot spy re good men, and that every honest, industrious fellow who leaves these shores is a loss to the country, and a loss felt more year after year." * But while the danger is evident, the mode of defence is not so clear ; and Jupiter accordingly tries to frighten away the enemy with his thunder. Formerly, " Hodge," transplanted to anew country, with unbounded scope for his energies, would iind them develop, and become at once a useful and prosperous citizen. JS'ow, the other side of the shield is presented — " It should always be borne in mind that the English labourer, though, upon the whole, the best servant in the world, and doing his day's work against any other man, is not self-reliant, or trustworthy, under novel conditions, tie has spent his life generally in the same village or neighbourhood, surrounded by the same circumstances, under the same public opinion and social control, doing the same kind ol* work, with the barne invariable diet, aud with about as little knowledge of the outer world as it is possible to imagine. He is a mere minor in point of discretion aud ability to understaid contracts and make engagements, and a mere innocent in regard to legal oftences. His simplicity has been found no slight inconvenience in the migration of industry from the agricultural to the manufacturing districts. * - * * . * JSow, we wish to put it to the Colonial farmers and Colonial authorities whether they are indeed quite prepared for the sort of material they will find on their hands when they are taking the bad with the good, as they must in a large immigration. Lt appears to us that, as numbers fan not be settled at once in those comfortable circumstances which grow up

with ' : time and require time for their development and even their recreation, a great part of these labourers will have to work -in gangs, at 7 ail ways, or other large works, and live in temporary barracks. But a man should be used to gangs to get on well with them, and to render what is due to his family, and what is due to his comrades. Somehow or other our labourers and their families are not adapted for communities or for the common arrangements required where the station is temporary, because the work is migratory or progressive. There are families, not men alone, that are to be shipped off in the spiing. It is an operation that; will require as much forethought and as much nicety of preparation as the provision for an in vading force — an affair, we need not say, to tax the intellect and experience of more practised administrators than Messrs Arch and Clayden." The color. ists having thus been cautioned about the u.selessness of importing farm labourers, a word of friendly advice is given to the latter not to be in a hurry to seek their fortune in Canada or Australia, but to wait until the first batch of these 10,000 pioneers could send home a year's experience. While, however, the emigragration of honest farm servants is a thing to be discouraged, it is kindly pointed out to poachers that they will find in New Zealand and other Colonies cougenial fields for their exertions—" In aluiust every labourer's family, of the normal sizo, there is sure to crop up at least one hereditary poaoher, or with a soul above a week's wages. If such persons would obey the laws of demand and supply and leave a bad market fora good one, they would be no loss to us, and great gain to Canada, New Zealand, or any o her iJolony." The colonists will feel flattered at the suggestion. These exordiums, however, will prove but as a bteath of wind in stopping emigration. " The laws of demand and supply " will wield a far more potent influence, just as they are doing in the United States. From that courury, the tide of emigration is rolling b*ck to England. In Decembei', a re-emigration of iron workers at the raie of 1,000 a week was going on. One day, a steamer of the White Star Line left New York for Liverpool with 600

skilled workmen on board — " the fh'st time in our history as a nation," says the American, Colonel ThoniaS Scott, " that the tide of immigration has rolled backward." And so the farmers at home will learn. Although they cannot offer similar, they can and must offer equal inducements to those held out by the Colonies if they wish to prevent their best servants emigrating, and themselves being left wirh the worst alone for their use.

.Restrictive legislation in England, as in America, has proved a failure as regards the prevention of drunkenness. Under the new Licensing Act, the public houses have to be closed at an eailier hour, but the effect has not been to diminish, but to increase drunkenness. The Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, in his annual report, states that the number of arrests in 1873 for drunkenness, disorderly conduct, or both, was 5,626 more than in 1872 ; and that " the increase of drunkenness, which he regards as a sort of epidemic, is still more remarkable ie com parison with 1869, the numbers being in that year only 23,007, while in 1873 33,8uV were taken into custody for being disorderly, drunk, or drunk and disorderly." in the provinces, although the Act has not produced such adverse results, still it is working unsatisfactorily. At Leeds, the chief constable reported to the Justices that, daring the year ending August, 1873, 1,647 persons had been apprehended for drunkenness, against 1,542 for a similar ♦pei-iod in 1872. The Mayor of the town, at the annual 'licensing meeting, said he could not congratulate the public on the contents of the Chief Constable's report, which showed that, "although there had been a decrease of convictions, there had been an increase of drunkenness." The working of the Act has bt-en similar in other parts of the country, and it should be borne in mind, by those who are so zealously .striving to bring about repressive legislation inJNew Zealand. Let us have public houses placed under strict regulations, by all means, but if the vice of drunkenness is to be eradicated from the community, it must be by moral suasion and the elevation of people's tastes, rather thm by sumptuary laws, which are redolent of the Middle Ages.