THE LABOR QUESTION.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2346, 8 October 1870, Page 2

THE LABOR QUESTION.

To the Editor of the Evening Star. Sin, —In your leader of the sth is noticed M r Ralston’s having a laborer’s view of immigration, and questioning Mr Macandrew when at the Glutha accordingly. It is a pity Mr Macandrew’s replies to his questions were not more fully reported, as also remarks by Mr Jas. M'Nicol, senior, when telling how well pleased he was to earn 3s a day on and after his arrival in the province. He might have added the names of George Duncan, Esq., Provincial Treasurer, John Barr, Esq., of Te Houka, H. F. Hardy, Esq., Dunedin, and many others, industrious and deserving, of the early settlers, in conlirmation of tin belief that at the present rate of wages and provisions, it is in the (lower of every workman to better his position also, as these gentlemen and others have done, and in less than one fourth of the time they were in bettering theirs In those days bread was Is 4d to Is, beef and mutton Cd to HKI, and all el cicteras high in proportion. It is tine no country can be prosperous without a large, well iemulated, employed population ; here we have the employment in variety and generally productive, but workmen have been very sca-ce for seventeen years past, m ire especially during the last tel), during which time labour has been dearer in this than in any other British province, That men could not find employment months ago or now may be tine, but that does not prove scarcity of work, it only proves that men could not find work at certain employments, and on terms with their views, and some of them being very well off and others easily advised, they were able or willing to lay by for a time and did so, in hopes of being employed on their own terms and at work suitable to their views ; bad they seen their own interest and applied themselves to labor get-at-able and lived with moderate economy, an increased demand for labor would have been the result; and if men would follow that system, that demand would continue for many years, even with an increase of a few hundreds per month. You r.-fer to the long winter as a reason for men l.eing badly off. Theie is nocomparisin with our winter and winter at home, win re out-door la' overs have to provide against winter with Is 8d to 3s per day during the rest of the. year, and here the said laborei a have from 7s to Ids a day to make a like provision for a milder and shorter winter, with food at half the price. To provide labor for them at a loss to the country, or for new comers under such circumstances is unreasonable ; all are host provided for who provide for themselves. Immigrants from China and other foreign parts oidy expect this liberty, and the Chinese although less robust than the British have no complaints about the winter or want of labor. We her? only of their general benefit to other industries, of their great consumption of the substantial of life, of their finds of gold, ami of many of them returning homo with fortunes, to them sufficient to make them independent for life. If their industry gives Gs a day, pur’s should give 12s to 15s—truly a fine field for labor. The Executive erred in providing work, at a loss to the country, to men who wore idle, not for want of work, but because that work was not to their taste; this providing for tin m was a direct interference between the erap’oyer and employed, to the loss of the former and at the expense of the country. The Executive knew at the lime many farms and industries wee only half wrought or suspended for want of hands, and that the mineral wealth of the country could support thousands. On the diggings are workmen only. The ha f-and-baifs care littic about steady labor or service; the, high rate of wages and the low price of food enable tbcpi to live, if employed three clays a week ; tlmy are well-disposed, simple kind of animals. What means the Government may use to improve their habits and work a general reformation on loafers and agitators, may be suggested on another occasion, 1 am, &c., CITI/EX.