THE RIGHT-TO-WORK PAYNE

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 7 August 1914, Page 4

THE RIGHT-TO-WORK PAYNE

NOW and again, and far too often, we have a painful subject to deal with. Giving every man his right to believe and say in reason what his opinion is, it is open to those who differ to have something to say in opposition, more especially if that subject of the Crown be a, fanatical Member of Parliament of the red-hot Socialist Red Fed. brand. A glance at Mr Payne's Right-ta-Work Bill, to hand last week, reveals the fact that every man should by Act of Parliament have the right to work. That is to say, if a man is out of work the State should see that he g§t git, Such a piece of nonsense in a young and flourishing country like this is absolutely monstrous, As if any were deprived of work? Not very much so, at anyrate. Why, of late years there has been so much work everywhere, that the one and main object of men of Mr Bayne's kidney has been to do less- le.ss, than eight hours a day at an increase of wage. These methods, whether right or wrong in a Socialistic point of view, certainly do not need legislation to provide work for those in idleness often brought about through the/ir- qwq. arbitrary methods of harassing the employer. Besides, there are a number of men who won't work and don't want work to turn-up— loafers and parasites and a curse to God's Own Country. There is no necessity fqr legislation

compelling the Government of this fair land to find work for surplus labour, which is only to be found in the large cities and to the great cost and inconvenience of the country, where labour is going a-begging almost every day. We have never known a truly industrious man yet, either in New Zealand or Australia,who, after fossicking in vain about a big town for work, did not find it in the country; and so far as this Dominion is concerned, we assert it again and again that there is plenty of work going in the farming and industrial districts, but Mr Payne's "Right to Work Bill"—for which we have no time and Members of Parliament rightly shun — not only provides for the out-of-work loafers, but for those in work, who must have shorter hours and larger wages, whether they seek it or not. We admire the honest worker and maintain the rights of labour, but not of the Payne breed.