THE GOVERNOR TO WORKING MEN.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1371, 8 July 1878, Page 3

THE GOVERNOR TO WORKING MEN.

The following address was delivered by his Excellency the Governor at the opening of the industrial exhibition in connection with the Wellington Working Men's Club : Ilia Excellency, who was greeted with cheers, rose and said—Mr chairman, MiMayor, ladies, and gentlemen, I can assure you it was with the greatest pleasure that I accepted the invitation I received to bo present today for the double purpose of inaugurating the new buildings which are going to be. taken possession of by the Wellington Working Men's Club, and also to declare open the exhibition which has been instituted at their instigation, and carried out by their energy and perseverance. (Cheei'3.) What we see in this room and tha little ! had the opportunity of noticing at a private view on Saturday convince me that the attempt- of the working men of Wellington has been marked with very great success. It has been a means of enabling many artists to exhibit those pictures which we see around us, and which pourtray, though perhaps in a limited degree, the beauty and magnificence of some of the scenery of this country— I ray in a limited degree, because I believe it beyond the power of art to depict much of the scenery of New Zealand [cheers]; but tho attempt which has been made in many of these pic*

tures would at any rate, I am convinced, if shown in London be the means of opening tho eves of many of the inhabitants of the old country to the beauties of New Zealand scenery. Before declaring this Exhibition open I wish to say a few words on what L believe to be the more important duty of the day, the inauguration of the Working Men's Club of Wellington. These institutions are, I believe, pregnant, with good I believe that they will furnish a want which has long been felt, and I trust that if they are properly and satisfactorily managed, they will be the means of improving the social condition and habits of the working men of New Zealand. It is for this reason that I have, whenever opportunity has occurred, endeavored to the utmost in my power to back up and assist the exertions or those who wished to institute them. This country of your adoption offers a brighter and wider field to the working man than perhaps any other country in the world. [Applause.] When I say working man, I use the phrase in the limited sense in which it is generally understood 5 for I hold that every man who is worth his salt, who is fit to live, is in one way or another a working man. [Cheers.] One may possess large estate?, but if he performs his duty, looks after those estates, and considers the interests of his neighbors and the country around him, his time will be fully occupied. One man may turn his attention to literature or to science, others may earn their bread by the labor of their hands ; but in many instances the labor of those who work with their heads is harder than that of those who work with their hands. But, sir, I will pass from this mere digression, and turn to the subject of working men's clubs. This country offers bright and glorious opportunities to a working man if he only properly avails himself of those placed bdfore him. You have a free and liberal constitution; you have a climate which enables every man / to develop" his full energy; you have »n (almost unlimited demand for your labor, and you have wages which are as remunerative, or more remunerative, probably, than in any other place on the gl >be. The working man of this country has everything open to him, and if he chooses to fit himself for it there is no position to which he may not aspire ; but it his duty, and it is a necesity that if he wishes to avail himself of these opportunities he should prepare himsolf. [Cheers.] A marked feature in all these Australasian colonies is the desire and anxiety evinced by all classes to encourage education, and most happy it is that it should be so, because while great privileges are offered to you, while every office in the country is open to you, it is necessary that those who hope to avail themselves of such opportunities should be prepared to perform the duties which would be involved. We see in all directions schools arising, and a free and liberal education is offered to every child in the country. We see public libraries, mechanics' institutes, and athenaeums springing up in all parts of the country. These are all valuable and useful in their way. They enable the working man in his leisure hours to improve those days which he spent at school, clays which, unfortunately, are generally too short, because in a country where every one has to make his own way, the time during which a child can be left at school is usually so short that he has literally only been able to learn how to learn. [Cheers.] In all instances, even when a man has gone through the whole system of the education of the upper classes in England; when he has gone through the private school, then the public schoul, and then the college, his real acquisition of knowledge begins after he has left his college. (Applause.) It is by keeping up the small stock of knowledge that you have laid up in early days that you are able to master the various questions which must come before the country. Gentlemen, all these means of education are valuable—most valuable in their way —but it always appeared to me that there was one branch of education which was w nting, that is, the moral and socui t-ainin* of tho working men of the colonies, and I believe that if these clubs are properly carri -A out they will be the means of affordi ig that education. I do not say and 1 do not believe that intoxication is more prevalent in this country than in others ; on the contrary, it is, I hold, otherwise, but at the same time there can be no doubt that there is too much drinking in New Zealand. lam no believer in making a man sober by Act of Parliament. I do not believe in coercion of that kind ; but I do believe in a kind of coercion -one which, depend upon it, is the most effectual, and that is the coercion of example and the opinion of your neighbours. [Loud cheers.] If these clubs are instituted with the determination of making them—if I may so term it—schools where men can learn good manners, and where they know that if they exceed in any degree in the way of drinking they will be looked down upon and condemned by their fellow-clubmen, they will, I am confident, have more effect in stopping excessive drinking than any other means. | Cheers ] It is the nature of man to require relaxation and amusement, and we all know that the working man, especially tho young working man who is not married, and has not a home, finds that the lodgings he occupies are not, generally speaking, of a very tempting and comfortable character. He wants in his leisure hours some place where ho can go and find relaxation. He may in the fine weather walk about with his friends, but when the wet and cold weather comes on he is generally tempted to visit the public-house, lie may go there without the slightest inclination or wish to drink, but at the same time he feels that he is called upon to have something for what is called " tho good of the house." Well, his neighbour does the same, and so it goes on from hour to hour and day to day; and a man who began that course without any intention or wish to exceed, too often tails into temptation and becomes a drunkard. All this danger is removed in one of these clubs. No man is obliged to call for anything "for the good of the house." The house is his own nsniuch as it is anybody else's. He can come to his club, enjoy himself, talk to his neighbour, he can play his game of draughts, billiards, or bagatelle, and go away without having anybody to thank, and without calling for anything unless he chooses. I think that this, together with creating an esyrit dc corps among members of the club, will be the surest and most certain way of " scotching" that most detestable vice of drinking. Remember that the working man in this country does not expect to remain always a working man. There is no one in this colony who is thoroughly sober, honest, and straightforward, witli a head upon his shoulders, who may not look forward to be some day or the other an employer of labour instead of a labourer himself. Look, I may say, at all the richest men in this oolony, and ask how have they made their wealth. Did they bring it out with them ? No. It has all resulted from their own energy and perseverance and their own thrift. This, instead of making working men jealous of the benefits which these their neighbours haye derived, ought rather to act as an incentive to them to go and do likewise, Remember at all times that labour and capital are very much like the Siamese twins bound together by an indissoluble tie. If you cut that tie not one but both will linger and perish. Labour without capital is nothing; capital without labour cannot improve itself. Thereforo I trust that many of those feelings which have been engendered in other countries, of antagonism and envy of labour towards capital, may not exist in this country. [Applause.] You are more favoured here than we are in the old country, where from the nature of things the labouring man has not tho same opportunity of rising that you have. Whenever you feel any little inclination to envy your rich neighbours, think rather that it only requires that you should thoroughly exert yourself to take tho same place which they have obtained. [Applause.] lam glad to hoar that already the members of (lie club have so far increased that they have been obliged to seek new premises. I seo that you are now 400 in number, and I hear the members aro increasing from week to week. I trust that this may long continue. I wish you every prosperity and success, and I hope that some of the objects which I have shadowed forth may result from the institution of this club. [Loud cheers.] I congratulate you upon the mode in which you have chosen in the first instance to open these rooms; and I trust that it may bo only a prelude to future and larger \ tions. Gentlemen, I declare this Exhibition j now open. [Renewed cheering.] |