The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1892. Capital and Labour

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 82, 9 January 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1892. Capital and Labour

The following extract from a speech made by Sir John Gorst, at Wolverhamton, at the Conservative Working Men's Club of the borough, contains much that is applicable to this colony : " With regard to all those great companies which eD joyed a practical monopoly, such as railway companies and gas companies, the nation had a perfect right to insist upon certain conditions being fulfilled in reference to the labour they employed. The right of the nation was undoubted; it was only a question of policy how far that right should be insisted upon. There was another thing which the Government could do to promote the efficiency of labour, and that was by the spread of technical education. Every man could do his work better if he were taught the best and most improved methods of performing it, and the spread of technical education in this country would, if it were carried out by the people in a proper spirit, double or treble the efficiency of English labour. They were justly proud of the energy and of the activity of their people. He believed in those qualities they stood unrivalled in the world ; but there was no doubt that hitherto in technical education they had been behind the workmen of the Continent. If their attention was now directed to that important subject, and if their workmen were made as clever as they were energetic and spirited, he thought English labour would rival any labour in the world. It was for the interest of the whole nation and for the interest of every worker in the country that capital should be properly protected. Me did not know a heresy more pernicious than to spread, about amoivj workers that their natural enemy was the capitalist. It was nothing of the kind. He hoped he had said enough to con vinco them that it was to the interests of all that the efficiency of the labour of this couutry should be promoted to the utmost, and they might depend upon it that any law or any rule, whether it was made by Parliament or auy employer, or a trade union, which 'interfered with the efficiency of labour was directly disadvantageous to the nation. Another consideration was the great waste of labour in the country. They knew that great loss was incurred by strikes, loss both to capital and to workers. It was a barbarous and clumsy method. Although it had been proposed to limit the hours of labour to eight per day, if the movement succeeded they must remember that there would still be a large number of men out of employment. He desired to call attention to what seamed to be the alarmingly steady and gradual depopulation of the country districts. The people in towus were greatly interested in the question because the superfluous labour in the towns affected their comfort. In England the rural population flocked to the towns, and m Ireland it emigrated to America. There was a great deal of land which might have been obtained. He had made inquiries ftmong labourers, and had ascertained that their reason for coming into the towns was that their hours of labour were long and monotonous, Jand they had often nothing before them but the workhouse. One of the most important problems which was before the country was how to contrive to repeople the rural districts, and townspeople were greatly interested in this problem, because the cultivation of the soil meant the production of food for the people engaged in the great manufacturing centres; and how much more prosperous townspeople would be if it was possible to turn the tide of migration and send tjje people back to the land ! They would thus relieve the congested state of the labour market iv the towns, and it was the duty of the, people in the towns to take a great interest in seeing how this great social problem could be solved. Statesmen must now tajkp fhis labour question in hand and discover some pjan to satisfy the cravings of the people within the lines of our constitution. 7 '

The Borough Councillors are certainly to be congratulated on the broad view they have taken on the subject of boring for artesian water, and on passing the necessary resolution authorising the expenditure of a sum sufficient to make the experiment. We believe that the advantages derivable from artesian wells, both as regards economy and utility, have always been thoroughly appreciated by the Council, but the principal obstacles to their undertaking the work before were, want of knowledge as to whether there existed even a likelihood of artesian water being obtainable in this part of the district, and fear of the probable cost. The first of these has beeu most successfully removed by Councillor Carthew, whoso statistics, carefully and accurately compiled as they were, convinced those who came to oppose his resolutiou even before they had heard his arguments, or the figures he had prepared to support them. Tho money difficulty has also disappeared, owing to the economical management of the finances of the Borough during the past twelve months. It is understood that there will be no unnecessary delay in getting the work done. Should the experiment prove successful several private individuals will immediately have wells sank on their several properties.