LABOUR AND THE LAND.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1023, 12 January 1911, Page 2

LABOUR AND THE LAND.

Sir,—l wrote a letter to your widely-, circulated paper on the fact that Labour must.be one with Capital to be a success the world over. We must help each other. The operative makes capital, and irnero conditions have allowed immense Wealth has been accumulated by the work of labour. I meant that where labour is employee!' to build ships, do iron work, and "all- classes of ..manufacture, that where the job is good and tho contract sufficient, each factor in tho colli-. plction' of the work, capital included, must bo paid shares of profits. When tho job is bad and the price low, that is what I was getting at (the labour and the capital required must fix prices for ships, railway material, and all the . requisites for supplying the world. Then and then only shall we. have fair play for both labour and capital. Tho world is not big, and when fixed prices are established, we, the labour unions of tho world, shall establish peace between all nations. ~ I have been asked about where the land comes in. I have had seven years out here, toiling among bush and fern land. I was writing as a member -of the old Liberal-Labour "Union at what turned up, "and did all- right. Since I: took on breaking in this future Garden of Edeii I have had the longest hours and hardest workI ever' did. I can say with truth that 'all 'who go out-back and make our waste lands fertile deserve to have the land they reclaim- from non-production given' to them by- their country, for tu'ein and their, children! ..so, long as they work it. To . those- .who take up . largo areas of .land.from the Natives and don't live on or work it, but hold it to make some poor struggling settler pay them a profit, ;I say we should make them work or.lose 'it. The land is the peoples, and especially those of us who by years of unrewarded toil, privation, and isolation have .made these out-back "areas produce'wool," butter, and meat. To those who only talk about whoso the land is, and have 'never lived out-back, complying with a residence, clause, I say get an O.R.P. or L.1.1\, fulfil tho conditions, make it productive,, and then I can talk.to you. For anyone'who-has not been out-back to dictate to those who hav.c is absurd ill the. extreme. We .have here a better and more fertile land than Britain; We lij.vo very large areas of. unoccupied,. unproductive land. If we settle the waste lands and make them productive, our national debt is nothing to get the blues over. Auckland province alone can expand to four times its present production in a. short time, and, given settlers for -waste lauds, will. Plenty people are after land: it only .wants opening, up. The land is the peoples, and there will always be; plenty for those of us game to on. The crude methods of strikes have borne fruit. Labour is recognised the world over. To be successful, Labour and Capital must share the profits.. Strikes must cease, ..where strikers aro dependent on contracts, from other nations. I quote u shipyard in Aberdeen. The men struck; the contracts went to Michigan. So did many of ■ tlie single hands. We want the workers to get enough from their eight hours' .work to.make them comfortable and satisfied. If the world's workers and capital unite, suitable prices would result. Labour has to learn that when, it proves unreliable the work goes to -where labour and capital unite for their mutual benefit, ami that'while our British labour unions are raising wages, the work is leaving .British possessions, and they must compete with foreigners-or starve until labour conditions warrant capital taking more contracts. Where strikes can be avoided they should bo, as when any industry on earth ceases for a tinre fonditions arise that bring supplies from other -lands. Tho capitalists who employed the strikers cannot make a do, so trouble starts for the unsatisfied workers. There .is no doubt education has had a lot to do with workers seeing that tlieir social coil-

dition is not what iit .should be._ This showsthc world is improving. Workers were once slaves; now they have a say in pelitics. JJy and.bye much more consideration .will be shown them. Thev will be. owners' lor their work,* and rcceivc a fair share of all money made. Co-opsra. Hun on sound lines is a success, and vice versa.—l am, etc,,

G. T. MACKENZIE, Oparau, January i, 1911.-