West cOASt Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1887.

West Coast Times, Issue 6560, 2 August 1887, Page 2

West cOASt Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1887.

Some months ago two English gentlemen, Messrs Hodgkin and Hazell, visited this and the neighbouring colonies in the interests of the society having for its object State-aided emigration to the colonies. Some time after their return Mr Hazell contributed to an English paper an article on the " unemployed " question, or rather the Colonial phase of ir, in which he gives a very truthful account of the many causes operating on the labor market in the colonies, and the dif. ferent condition of things as compared to that which now exists in England. He admits that in the colonies employment is less regular than at Home, a condition which he ascribes to the many openings that exist for men to better their positions or become their own matters, and also that because '" billets " are generally so easily pro- i

curable men do not value them so highly. The upsetting, of the labor market by gold rushes, and the employment of what are relatively large numbers on public works ore nlto noted, uor is tbo fact of the agricultural •■( and pastoral industries employing large numbers only at certain seasons overlooked. In New South Wales and South Australia, he tells bia readers, the labor market is sometimes very much deranged by the disastrous effects of drought, tho terrible influence "of which on the wholo industry of the country being also referred to. , Of course there is nothing new in this, the fucts are always before us, and the lines would not occasion remark wern it not that Mr Hazell is one of the few Englishmen who have visited the Colonies able to take back with him a correct impression of the Btate of things here. He shows us, more plainly perhaps thau we would otherwise see it, what tbe reasons are that letvd up to labor being in Buch an unsettled conditiou nnd gives ua a clue how to rectify it. In mentioning the various sources of employmeut the miud is at once struck with the fleeting" nature of most of them. Public works caunot employ a largo population for long, andeveu supposing any individual colony spent a certain sum every year for a number of years, even theu ifc could not prcveut its labor market being deranged at various patts ; too much in oue plaou and too little in another. Shearing and barvestiug- each employ a large nutu 1 . er of bunds, but when they are done the men are thrown out of employment, and generally help to swell the number of the unemployed in the large towns. The mining industry is the only one that employs|labor constantly, and hence it is most valuable in its effect on the colony, its beneficent influence being continnally exerted and not spasmodi" cally as in the ense of those just mentioned. It is to the encouragement of this aud similar industries that the efforts of the legislature should be directed ; to increase by every possible means the number of men permauently employed in settled industries, aud thus lessen the proportion of those periodically out of woik. As to the "' unemployed " themselves Mr Hazell has also bad his eyes weil open, and does not overlook the " business " many make of the situation. He refers to the *' sundowners," to the recent, agitation in Sydney, and also to the influence these men can exercise at the pollingbooths in the large cities, not only by their own votes, but by the aid of working men who are employed seeing- that if they can force the Government to find employment for them at lair wages they have not so much to fear from excessive competition ; ifc is in some measure an union of working men to force the Government to find employment. He has much to say upon tbe unfituess for a colonial life of many who drift out, or are assisted out from Home by friends anxious to get rid of them, and concludes a very able article by an observation calculated to revolutionise , public feeling in England in respect of the Colonies. He says " the question is not so much * What Colonies are fit to receive emigrants?' — it is, rather, " What people at home are fit to become colonists ?' "