The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1892.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 94, 6 February 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1892.

We are informed from Wellington that among the measures being prepared for next session is one empowering Government to take possession of all unclaimed moneys in the banks, and unclaimed land. They will probably be placed under the control of the Public Trust Office which will administer them and after the lapse of a certain time hand over the proceeds, if still unclaimed, to the Colonial Treasurer. It will be remembered that during the last session of Parliament a somewhat similar proposal was made by one of the Wellington representatives, which met with a considerable amount of opposition both in and out of Parliament, for the excellent reason that it savoured strongly of spoliation. The financial crisis in New South Wales and Victoria is likely to exercise an indirect influence on the New Zealand labor market. We have been informed by the cablegrams that in Melbourne the unemployed difficulty is again claiming attention, and that thousands of people are starving in the suburbs of that city. That there are many among these unfortunates who departed from our more favored land in the days of the exodus, cannot be doubted. When they become acquainted with the superior advantages now offered by the Bureau of Industries, which practically guarantees every able bodied laborer a wage of six shillings per day, they will be even more eager to return than they»were to leave. Six shillings a day may be little enough, but it is high when compared with no wages at all. The chief difficulty in the way of many will be to find money to pay their steamer fares. But, be that as it may, they are bound to find their way to New Zealand by some means. There is one unpleasant fact before them, which is that owing to the unsettled character of the financial affairs of private employers of labor, arising out of the mistaken policy of the Government, they can place little reliance on them. Whether the Government will start relief works is another thing.