5

H.—6

by the Paris maraichers. All these are not fancy dreams, but mere realities—nothing but modest conclusions from what we see round about us, without any allusion to the agriculture of the future.* —Prince Kropotkin, " The Coming Beign of Plenty," Nineteenth Century. It is true that farms, say, of 200 acres, cannot be worked so economically as large farms of 1,000 acres; but the former have to employ labour, and do not compare with allotments. Lord Carrington has eight hundred tenants of small plots of land around the town of High Wycombe, Bucks, and these get £10 an acre of produce, while farmers only get £7 per acre off the same land by plough cultivation. Passing over the question of injustice to the labourer in making him pay such unequal and (apparently) excessive rent, it is obvious that the benefit to be derived from the thorough nature of the system pursued on the allotments shows its superiority to that of the larger farms, or such rents could not be paid at all. When New Zealand is farmed in such a manner as Lombarcly or Elanders is, it will support a population compared with which the number of our present inhabitants will be but a drop in the ocean of the future census returns. The division of the land among many people is, I am aware, but a temporary measure, and will not ultimately settle the " unemployed" difficulty. That difficulty rests not upon landholding, nor upon any one division of the subject —it is an effect of the whole social organization as at present constituted ; but, as the future will bring its own wisdom to meet its own troubles, we may evade the most pressing of threatened evils by turning our energies to the one subdivision of the subject— viz., settling the land with many landholders. There is no action of such moment, no issue so important, no legislation so necessary, as that dealing with the question whether the citizens of New Zealand are to be employed or unemployed in the near future. SWEATING. Although in New Zealand there is no "sweating," as the word is understood in London or New York, still there is a growing tendency in the larger towns towards systems of working which bear such close resemblance to " sweating" that there is little appreciable difference. So soon as piecework is given out by employers who are careless where the material is manipulated, so soon does one of the worst sides of " sweating" appear. The employer who cares for nothing but for making money finds " home-work" extremely convenient. Such employers are not worried by Inspectors requiring' alterations as to ventilation or sanitation; they avoid the payment of factory fees ; they can play off one worker against another to lower rates, and in times of pressure can insist on their victims working almost night and day to get orders fulfilled. Unfortunately, too many of the pieceworkers play into the hands of such men, in order to evade the law. These belong to two classes. One is that of those who are only thus employed in a desultory way. Some married woman, whose time is only partially filled with domestic duties, wishes to make a small addition to her income, either to eke out her husband's wages or to have some money of her own. She therefore gets piecework from an employer, and works at it in her own home. She would consider any interference with her right to do this as an outrageous breach of the liberty of the subject; but, as she is not absolutely dependent upon such work for bread-and-butter, she can "undercut" the prices and take away the work from those whose sole support it is. The other class consists of people whose only means of subsistence is the decreasing pittance they obtain by competing against one another. These fear any interference, because, bare of all comfort as their lives are, they just manage to keep body and soul together in some way by their small earnings, while without them they can see nothing ahead but the pauper's home or the grave. Girls, too, whose parents keep them in food and shelter sometimes get dress and pocket-money by such home-work. The effect is a continuous and steady depression in prices, down to starvation-point. Eespectable factory-owners, who have to provide rents, fuel, decent buildings, &c, and whose workpeople have short hours, cannot compete in cheapness with those who work under sweating conditions. The only general remedy is to make all workers, if possible, perform their duties in properly-conducted establishments. Some of the homes in which work is done at present are mere dens of dirt and pestilence, from which germs of contagion are scattered broadcast among the public purchasing the goods. If each employer or shopkeeper had to keep a record of the names and addresses of all persons to whom piecework is given out, and if the Inspector of Eactories had the right to visit and examine any house in which piecework is executed, much good would result. Public feeling has, however, a great deal to answer for in this manner. So long as the wives and daughters of working-men will buy for cheapness alone, regardless where or how such cheapness is made possible, so long will they continue to sap the interests of their own brothers and sisters, and

* The above quotation having alluded to the farming of land in small allotments, I will add an " up-to-date " statement concerning labourers' allotments in England at the present moment. In two English counties the following rentals are obtained :—

County and Parish. Tjarge Farms : Rent per Acre per Annum. Allotments: Rent per Acre per Annum Remarks. Wiltshire — Bronmam Bishop's Cannings Milton Lilborne Aldborne Potterne Wildford Charlton Figheldean ierkshire— Compton Beedon ... Ilsley Waltham Lamborne Woolstone Wantage Appleford 14s. 9d. to 22s. 6d. 8s. 4d. to 13s. 3d. 6s. to 14s. 6s. 6d. to 13s. 6d. 25s. 6d. 5s. Od. to 13s. 3d. 10s. 2d. to 14s. 6s. 6d. to 12s. £3 £2 5s. to £2 10s. £4 to £0 £2 10s. to £3 12s. £4 10s. to £8. £3. £2 0s. 8d. £2 13s. 4d. Allotments—31 acres in 1-rood lots; 25 acres in 2-rood lots. 101 acres in allotments. 9s. Od. to 12s. 10s. to 12s. 10s. to 12s. 3d. 8s. 6d. to 12s. 8s. to lis. 7d. 7s. 6d. 15s. to 26s. IDs. 2d. to 31s. 3d. £2. £2 12s. 4d. £2 13s. 4d. £2. £2 10s. to £3. £4. £4. £4.