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The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1871.

Another instance lias occurred to prove the necessity of some better arrangements than at present for the sake of those who live by daily labor. .In Auckland, the richest Province of the North Island, there is much distress—more, in fact, than there was in iduring ithe winter. This distress has arisen from a very natural cause. A

large population was attracted by the report of rich goldfields, and with the usual excitability of those who seek their livings by alluvial mining, they rushed to Auckland with gold-made fortunes dancing before their imaginations. From the nature of the case mnny must have been disappointed. Mining in Auckland requires outlay of capital to make it profitable, and a glance at the returns published in the New Zealand Gazette will suffice to shew that there is more than the average number of companies that do not pay working expenses. But, more than this, the diggings are circumscribed by Maoii obstructiveness. The Natives have not yet been brought to a utilitarian view of the land question, and are quite as bent upon closing land against settlement as the most rabid opponent of the Hundreds Regulations Act. Hemmed round by so many insuperable difficulties, the demand for labor in Auckland is circumscribed, as it must necessarily be wherever the field for the profitable investment of capital is limited. There may be those who blame the Superintendent of that Province for the words reported to have been used by him, as tending to provoke hungry men to acts of insubordination j but that is not the point to which we wish to draw attention. What we wish to shew is that the conduct of the Auckland Government forms a marked contrast to the action taken by the Reid Ministry under similar circumstances. When it was shewn to them that provision should be made for the employment of the surplus labor, so that summer-earned wages might not be wasted, there was the utmost difficulty in getting them to move. We do not know that it was so much apathy, as want of administrative ability. The contingency had not been contemplated, and no provision was made to meet it \ so that when the pressure came there was no fund to fall back upon. We are aware that there is a large class of politicians who hold that it is no part of the duty of a Government to, what they term, provide labor for the people; and they talk very learnedly about communism and its evils whenever such forethought and pre-arrangements are made. Rather than sacrifice their theory, they would sacrifice social prosperity. These men, unfortunately, see analogies oftentimes where they do not exist, and cannot perceive differences which are real. Chiefly do they fail through not seeing that the chief work of Colonial Governments is to forward industrial organisation—that in truth, in the words of Mill, “ colonisation is a question of “ production, and of the most efficient “ employment of the productive resources of the world.” After much pressure, the Secretary for Land and Works found a resource in the old work of stone-breaking ; and when he once became convinced of the necessity of the case, he gave every assistance that could be given. But the Auckland people have not only shewn i anxiety to find employment for the surplus labor,, but alacrity. Nor have they resorted to the device of perpetuating a worn-out system of roads. They have forced through the Provincial Council measures to enable them to construct a railroad, so that they may utilise that labor which otherwise they would have driven away. While our Executive has been cavilling at and trying to obstruct every plan by wliich employment could be found, they have taken means to open up the country. Not one single progressive plan proposed by the Superintendent of Otago was approved by his Ministry. The Executive went their own way about matters, and it usually differed from that wliich men accustomed to business would have taken. They took umbrage at the General Government, ' and put themselves in the wrong ; and the General Government, lest the people should suffer, tool? measures to do without their aid. Railroads, water supply, Provincial development, have all been ignored ; and, to crown all, they wish the people to believe their doings were I wise J One plan Mr Macandrew proposed that would prove a never-failing resource and profit to the community was the working of gold claims. This is a plan which we have rpore than once urged upon attention. It is purely a Provincial question, but not on that account less worthy of consideration. When winter comes many industrial pursuits will necessarily be stopped, and whether we will or not, there will be unemployed. We should like the fact to be impressed upon the public mind, that every week of unemployed, labor is a serious inroad upon capital. Every man knows this who has to draw upon his savings for family expenses, And if the Government is at last compelled to provide work at a higher price than it would be done at by other means, instead of employing the workmen reproductively, they are wasting revenue. The plan of providing work on goldfields avoids both these evils, and has other obvious advantages ; but the Reid Executive cannot see it. Was it neglected because proposed by Mr Macanjkhew ? or

on account of some theory about large farms not paying expenses through the high rate of wages 1

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18710127.2.8

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2480, 27 January 1871, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
917

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1871. Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2480, 27 January 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1871. Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2480, 27 January 1871, Page 2

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