A LABOR COLONY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2367, 7 December 1908, Page 7

A LABOR COLONY.

FOR THE COERCION OF THE LOAFER.

•At tlie meeting of the Dunedin Benevolent Trustees last Monday, Mr. Gall away moved, ■pursuant to notice —“That the Minister he respectfully requested when framing his proposed Hospital and Charitable Aid Bill, to make provision for a labor colony and for the coercion of the loafer who' neglects to support himself and those dependant upon him.” The mover said: Tlie enormous increase in the expense to the Dominion of outdoor relief during the past fifteen years of prosperity must have ■impressed them with the conviction that the present system is defective. He believed that those to whom the community had entrusted its administration had spared neither time nor trouble in the performance of their duties, hut that notwithstanding the taxpayers had just cause to complain of the ever-increasing burden they were called upon to hear. If, when work was plentiful, as it had been in these years, the money spent in outdoor relief had increased so largely, it was fair to assume that in lean years more, and still more, would require to be spent in this direction. The problem that faced them was one which required very careful and serious consideration. He ventured to assert that the principal cause of the leakage was the increasing difficulty of distinguishing between the cases of real hardship which were necessarily entitled to relief, and those cases which arose from habits of thriftlessness, and the absence of the moral perception, which permitted those who were of supporting■ themselves to loaf upon r the community. The conviction was too often forced l upon them that the pitiful tales they heard from week to weelg|were caused by, tho neglect of those whose duty it was to provide support for their dependants. They might be told fliat the law, as it stood at present, made provision for such cases. It was true that the Destitute Person’s Act in theory provided a remedy. Under it the defaulter could he proceeded - against, and even thrown into gaol. Experience had taught the Trustees that the so-called remedy did but little, to lighten the burden of the taxpayer, and carried with it no terror to the loafer. 'When the much-cherished individual was sentenced to a. short term of imprison- . ment with hard labor he varied the irksomeness of his incarceration by picking oakum and other kindred pursuits of nn equally unremunerative description. Meanwhile, he was clothed and fed by the State and his dependants did hot cease to be a burden to the taxpayer. It would be unfair to the taxpayer that, prison v labor should be permitted to compete with free labor,, but in New Zealand there .were tracts of- land now worthless which by labor could be reclaimed or planted l , and rendered valuable, ■fruitful, and beautiful. If these

loafers, instead of picking oakum, were for indefinitev periods depending upon their own efforts, compelled by discipline to work at the reclamation or afforestation of such places, and the value of the work applied to the support of their dependants, the community would be enriched by thoir efforts, and it might dawn upon the loafer who- loved not work that it was easier to do his duty -as a father or as a citizen than be compelled to do it under discipline. It was because lie felt strongly that the scheme of statutory charity which made no adequate provision not for the punishment, merely j but for the coercion to labor of the loafer, was foredoomed to failure that he ventured to put these views before the Trustees. It might bo that Parliament, in its wisdom, might approve of other methods. Any method which had for its object the recognition of the principle that it is the duty of the State to compel each person who can work to produce by labor the value of such relief as it may be necessary to afford liis dependants was worthy of consideration. If successful, it would be a boon to the taxpayer, and >a blessing, though perhaps in disguise, to the loafer. Mr. Talboys seconded the motion, and it- was carried.