UNEMPLOYED AND FARMERS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 550, 3 July 1909, Page 3

UNEMPLOYED AND FARMERS.

Sir,—This unemployed rumpus is. the groat est farce possible, fi-elief works at'exorbit--Biit prices, Waitotara bush-whackers to'clear £3—£3 per.week/after : payrag all e'xpEsnscs. I-am Borfy.'for.the masx that .is ;,foolish enough to speculato in the land afterwards., Wherever I have seen relief works started, i was such paid as would suffice to. keep tho wolf from the door, as the''saying is; for instance in .'65 and '66, when. \the Imperial' troops wore scut Home and the volunteers were the Maori war. :.Hunilreds were out.of employment .w Auckland,' and-.the relief works given then provided .payment at the rate of 2s. 6d. a day. Good men, kio, accustomed to. hard work; mostly from the Old Country, and living was higher. l then than now. Why, we used to pay. 16s. for a pair of moleskin trousers. But why? In those days men were prepared to give value for their money. Now very few of them .can., They want'big money and give as little as.possible for it; and instead of giving an employer full time, they want the naif of it holidays. 'This ia the result of a Government pandering to the masses, and our State education, frivolity, unmanliness, idleness. Take, for instance, farmers. They .are-badly in ■want of'hands, but can't get them. .A, scarce and; hard-to find is a practical, man for'farm,work, and those aspiring to be so, wheii you try them, fifty per cent, of them are useless. Our State farms would, not ta,ke a.second,place fifty years ago in some paits of the Old Country, to my knowledge. It is certainly time New Zealand putting up a solid front, for its bluff and Wow are pretty well known over most of the gtebe. ~-I am, etc., ■ • .-;...,'.. • : l ' ■■-■■■■■■ . -■-.' ■ '■■ : ' ' ' FARMER: • i •- Waverley; June 30.' \ , ■ . ,