Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3370, 13 December 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1871.

What steps do the Government intend to take with regard to the one very essential condition of their public works policy— the supply of labor ? It may be true that in certain portions of the colony there is occasionally a certain amount of temporary surplus labor ; but it is contrary to the fact to say that tbere is in New Zealand any appreciable amount of really surplus labor — thatis to mj, labor unable to obtain employment. The truth of this is illustrated every year by the extreme rates of wages which agriculturists and sheepfarmers have to pay at the time they require an extra number of hands. We hear occasionally of "meetings of the unemployed" at Dunedin, Christchurch, and elsewhere, but these demonstrations always occur during what may be called the "off" season,— when there does not happen to be any extraordinary demand for shearers or harvest hands. During the time that harvesting or shearing is going on, the employers of this so-called surplus labor have to submit to the most extortionate terms or be content to allow their crops or fleeces to remain ungathered. This is no h'ction. Every year the farmers of Otago and Canterbury—in which provinces the outcry for employment is most loudly uttered from the stump — are placed in the position of either allowing their produce to rot on the fields, or submitting to extreme rates of wages, which seriously reduce their fair and legitimate profits. But even allowing, for the sake of argument, that there are say, several hundreds of hard working men out of employment in this colony, what would be the effect of their absorption in the work of railway construction, provided that no additional labor be imported ? It would simply be this —that the normal rate of wages throughout the colony would be so much raised that ordinary employers of labor would have no margin of profit left. For it is absurd to suppose that the surplus labor available in this colony is sufficient to carry out the large works contemplated, and once this available labor is taken up, the laborers would be masters of the situation, and naturally insist upon the highest possible scale of wages — a scale which would make it utterly impossible for tho Government to carry out its works within the limit of cost fixed by the Legislature. At the present time the Government is carrying out works on the West Coast of the Middle Island, the contractors for which are in no cass paying their men less than ten shillings per day. It is preposterous to suppose that anything like this rate of pay can be afforded for the construction of the railways authorised by Parliament, and unless the Government either pushes on immigration of the proper character, or enables the contractors for the construction of the railways to import their hands on the same favorable terms as the Government allows its agent in England to giant, we are satisfied that the schedule to the Railways Bill of last session will travel very little from the paper on which it is printed. Why not extend to Messrs Brogden & Son — or any other contractors — the privilege of importing skilled labor at the same rate at which the Agent-General is authorised to impose — namely, a payment of £5 per head. It would be a most profitable transaction for the Government ; for whilst the Agent-General may tako promissory notes for the passage money (which, judging from past experience will seldom be paid), or even forego it altogether, the contractor would probably guarantee the full payment in each case in cash. Besides, it is only fair to suppose that any contractor importing labor would make a selection of the very best men obtainable, and it is from the class of first-class workmen that New Zealand should hope to get its best settlers. This labor question is one that hedges round the public works policy, and unless it is promptly and energetically dealt with may, and possibly will, greaLly endanger its success.