THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1665, 21 June 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1879.

There is, so far as wo understand, a proposition before the Mayor of Christchurch to the effect that another public meeting should be called with the object, as stated by the promoters, of establishing a central free registry office. Here, those who are unemployed, can register their names and callings, and the employers can engage those that they require. The carrying of this into practical effect will of course involve the expenditure of money. It is therefore to be presumed that one of the proposals urged at the proposed meeting will be that a subscription list for the purpose should bo opened, and the public should be invited to subscribe. It appears to us that the meeting is altogether unnecessary, because the end proposed to be served by the promoters can bo effectually attained without it. If this is so, as wo think t is, for reasons which will be given later on, then the trouble and expense of a public meeting might well be spared. Nay, more than this, there need be no appeal to the public for subscriptions. It is, wo think, pretty generally conceded that the scarcity of employment which undoubtedly exists is but temporary. There is no fear that after tho present season we shall hoar any more of the want <if work. Hence there is need only of tomporary measures to meet the present crisis. In view of this wt are of opinion

that a plan could bo adopted which would moot all temporary wants, and save the calling of a second public meeting. This plan is, that the Major and City Council be requested to allow a registry book to be placed at the City Council Chambers in which the names and addresses and occupations of those seeking employment might bo entered free of cost. Employers desiring labor of any description could then consult this registry and communicate with the particular men or man they desired to engage. There would ho no work devolved on the City officials by such an arrangement, and the registry being at a central public place and open to all would enable the promoters to achieve tho object sought to bo attained. By this moans the cost of rent, &c., would be saved, and likewise an appeal to tho public for a second time would be avoided, a fact which, seeing the state of the times, is worthy of consideration. The object of the unemployed, viz., to bring their several trades and occupations under the notice of those who might wish to employ them, will in no wise be prejudiced by tho course we propose, on tho conti’ary we are inclined to believe that such a stop would tend to facilitate intercourse between tho employer and those desiring employment, and would, besides, save money which could bo more advantageously used in relieving cases of urgent necessity. We make ;the suggestion to tho committee of the unemployed with the desire to see their object attained at the least possible expenditure of mouey which may bo urgently needed iu other directions.

Agentleman of the name of Wiley, has lately delivered himself on New Zealand. This gentleman some time ago sot forth for a tour round the world determined to door die, and resolved apparently, when returned to the bosom of an admiring family, to instruct and amuse the world by a relation of his experiences. In order that his daring journey might be accomplished with some degree of comfort, he furnished himself with a large spring mattress, which ho carried about with him, and also with other paraphernalia of a luxurious tendency. Armed and equipped so as to defy all extremities, he rushed rapidly through crowded cities dazzled by the magnificence of his apparel, and awed by his spring mattress, and finally reached Christchurch, whore he favored the inhabitants with his presence for some weeks. His impressions of the place may he gathered by a perusal •f the hook lately published. This hook consists of about thirty letters written at various times to his relations in England, It would appear that Mr. Wiley, before rushing into print, consulted his friends as to whether he should send forth these thirty letters into a world abounding with ill-natured critics. It was not, it is to bo presumed, any diffidence on the part of Mr. Wiley that suggested to him this appeal to the opinion of his friends, for Mr. Wiley is not diffident, hut he was naturally anxious that those individuals whom he bad favoured, during his absence, with a record of his burning thoughts, should consent to the said burning thoughts being made public, Mr. Wiley’s opinion of Christchurch is soon summed np. It is altogether a very inferior place. Although, as the author takes care to inform the reader, he mixed in the most lofty society obtainable, he was quite unable to satisfy Ills mental cravings. There are few people in Christchurch, Mr. Wiley informs the world, who interest themselves in the slightest in any matters above the most ordinary routine of life. If there are a few scattered individuals who have higher aspirations, they are almost totally dependent on the society of such passing luminaries as Mr, Wiley himself. Mr, Wiley says the colonial youth •Cf sexes are insufferably rude, with ''the single exception of the children of one happy man (named in the hoot)? whose hoys are frank and manly without hjnng savages, and whoso girls are equally satisfactory. Mr. Wiley has, too, a happy knack of generalising. He leaves the world to infer that the men in New Zealand are in the habit of riding on sheep, because he once saw an individual go some distance in that extraordinary manner : ho also states that it is the common practice of old ladies to whirl wildly through the giddy mazes of the dance, probably because he onco saw some elderly person persuaded to exert herself at some family gathering. Altogether the Christchurch world, as seen through the medium of Mr. Wiley’s hook, is a strange place. But after all, wo imagine, the harm done is not of a very serious order. The passing impressions of a gentleman who travels with a spring mattress, and without any brains, will he taken by an expectant world at their real value.