The Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3626, 6 October 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1874.

The agricultural laborers at Home have not succeeded in the object they aimed at: they have not compelled the British farmers to come to their terms. The struggle has been severe and protracted ; the laborers were sympathised with and supported by the town populations, but there is a limit to voluntary contributions. Much as men may approve the object sought to be attained, they cannot continue to support their fellow men in idleness, and thus, when a struggle between -capital and labor takes place, it becomes a question which can hang out the longer. An employer may see his wage-paying fund reduced and himself become the poorer ; but, to the laborer, protracted inaction is simply ruin. It is this difference in capacity to endure that has destroyed the remote chance the agricultural laborers had of bettering their condition. It is difficult to say how it has happened that success has not attended the movement. Whether it began at a wrong time, too early or too late, or whether there was miscalculation as to the means of the farmers to hold out, is not clear. It seems certain from the result that the strike was not so general as we in the Colonies were - led to expect; and that, through its having been continued for so many months, arrangements were made to dispense with a large number of hands. This has been the, invariable consequence of extensive turn-outs. The idea of the laborers was, if they could hold out until the harvest, the necessity for labor would compel the farmers to give way. Had there been no possibility of obtaining help except by employing those on strike, this must have been the consequence ; but the unionists were in error. The harvest came, and was secured apparently with little difficulty. According to some of the English journals this was done by the employment of machinery to a much greater extent than was ever before known. Most probably this is true. Farmers at Home, especially in the sfiuth of England, fwere slow to move, and preferred following in the footsteps r of their fathers to adopting labor-saving manufacturers have year by found their account in enlisting emence in aid of all their processes, farmw&> hkve not kept pace with them. . Manufacturers, by their skill and enterprise, have—without exaggeration—been enabled to ke’ep in comfort ten times the population who at one time cquld have subsisted through their industries, while agriculture has been comparatively stationary. Several causes, political and social, have conduced to this. Many men, not deficient in acuteness, profess to doubt whether tenants could be found to cultivate land on -leasehold j they seem to overlook the fact that the greater portion of the soil of Great Britain is farmed by tenants who have not even that security. Landlordism at Home is a singular instance of faith between man and man. Tenants at will are found who are willing to invest capital in working farms from which they may be ejected at a short notice through .the mere caprice of the landowner. The sense of independence thus induced has tended not only to prevent improvement but to cramp intellect. A man liable to be turned adrift in the world, with the sacrifice of much ot his capital, should he offend ; his landlord, is not likely to trouble himself about matters in which he is likely to displease j nor is he, on such a slender tenure as the will of his landlord, justified in laying out money in improving a farm, the rent of which may be raised as a reward for his successful industry. It is by no means unlikely that the adoption of the ballot at elections may lead to a more equitable system. Having no longer control over the suffrages of his tenants, because of the land-owner not being able to ascertain how they voted, one strong inducement to perpetuate the system is gone, and the improvement of the value of the estate through having it cultivated in a superior style will take the place of lost political influence. The result will be in farming as in manufacturing, labor of a superior class will be required , men employed in farming, like those engaged in manufactures, will be paid more for their skill and reliability, than on account of bodily strength; and as has been the case in every other branch of industry under similar circumstances, an improvement will take place in the position and pay of the laborer. But when this inevitable change has taken place, and during the process of that change, what is to become of the tens of thousands who through so many months have striven, with the approbation of their fellowcountrymen, to better their condition 1 “ It is written," says Burton, “ in the unalterable laws of human nature, that no trade shall continue to be lucrative and easy." Man may attempt to compete with a machine, but in so doing he is at a disadvantage. It is in reality bone and muscle simple, against bone, mfiscle, and brains j for a machine is the embodiment of labor and intellect. In the long run therefore the machine will win, and the man must either be content with mere existence, or seek a market for that which he has to offer—the labor of his hands, In ail newly set-

tied countries there is demand for this, and we believe the committee who have had the control of the laborers’ strike are correct in recommending emigration as the last resource. The greater portion of the habitable globe is still unsubdued, and fortunately now communities either do, or might start free from many of the social trammels of the old world. In New Zealand there is ample room for tens of thousands, and ample material to work upon. The consequence of the strike at Home must be a severing of old relations between farmers and laborers: they have set up separate interests, and many of those who would have vegetated in the farming districts will have to leave. In all probability it will be the most intelligent of their class who are the marked men—men ©f energy and independent spirit, and they are precisely the class who succeed under new circumstances. It is to be hoped that henceforth the Agent-General will send us men of this superior stamp; for we do not want those who cannot help themselves, but the very best and ablest that can be procured. Only such can add to our Colonial wealth.