The Globe. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 971, 6 August 1877, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1877.

Ai'TE ii a lengthened interval, the complaint of a dearth of employment is once more heard amongst us. This, we believe, is to he attributed in a great measure to the completion of the majority of the public works and the usual slackness in trade generally at this period of the year. We do not believe for one moment that there is likely to be any long continuance of the scarcity of work complained of, but there is no doubt that it does exist. The difficulty is to find a remedy to meet the immediate want, and to bridge over, as it were, the interval between the seasons. The City Council have now no large works in hand upon which to employ the surplus labor, and private individuals are not either in a position to absorb any of it. The question then arises how to provide for those who are really anxious for employment but unable to obtain it, and the only way of solving this is to see if the General Government can do anything in the matter. Of the lona fide nature of the complaint no one who witnessed the assemblage on Saturday and this morning can have any doubt. There was about those present a thorough earnestness, and an absence of anything like mob oratory, which plainly showed that there was no wish to obtain public sympathy on false pretences, but that theirs was really a case which deserved relief if possible. We trust that the words of advice spoken by Mr. Kent will be taken seriously to heart by those who are in the unfortunate position of having no work, while willing to take it. To ally themselves with a person of the McLaren stamp would at once lay them open to all kinds of insinuations, and render those who would otherwise lend them a helping hand very chary of giving assistance. There is no reason | at all why they should do so. As I Mr. Kent truly observed, if the working men of Canterbury want to make their case known to the authorities they have iu their own ranks men 1 fully capable of doing so. They have i plain tale to tell, and do not need; rhe aid of Mr. McLaren to tell it. W c; do not, as we have said, think that the. depression is more than temporary.' [h all parts of the world communities! have to pass through these, _ and it 1 speaks volumes for the elasticity ofour resources when wu find I.hat not • ; withstanding the largo amount of immigration we have had, some years S have el&Pßtft Biace the labor market

luis suffered any serious depression. As to those who cannot iind work here proposing to proceed to Australia, they would iind that so far from bettering their condition it would be much worse. The surplus labor of America, both skilled and unskilled, is iitiding its way to Australia by shiploads, hence it can hardly bo expected that the demand for labor will be very great there. We trust that our idea as to the temporary nature of the dearth of employment will be found a correct one, and that some means will bo devised to tide over what may be called the slack time to the season till work will be abundant once more. In the meantime, we may just express a hope that the same common sense and good judgment which has marked the preliminary deliberations of those unemployed will continue to bo exercised, and that they will not allow themselves to be led away by mere mob oratory or frothy declamation.