Page 9 Advertisements Column 3

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 13, 2 June 1911, Page 9

an<l need not tronble on« f-x> giftexl and wise as your obviously i<e-

you remember Avhen Judge. Sim was a;r>po'inted. President of the Arbitration Court early in 1907, many leading- Otago Trades Unionists declared ]iiiu "the right man in the right place," and hastened to congra.tulato Mr. Sim. on his appointment —shaking hands with themselves meanwhile in anticipation of the "good time coming." The new President, we were assured, had the judicial mind, was a Hear thinker, and possessed all the other, qualities necessary to th© making of a successful a.rljitrator. Otago workers had had experience of Mr. Sim a« chairnian of the Conciliation Board, an exi>erience, they gleefully declared, which was in every way satisfactory, that is, so far. as it wais possible to find satisfaction under the wage system. It would l>3 interesting to kn.ow exactiy wh;it the m'PR think now?

THi: "Rural Workers' Gazette" (the official organ of the new union of that name) ooiivts out that there are over 80,000 cnipioye&s (Arage-earners) engaged in connection with ajfricultnral, vitieultiira.l. fj-uit-growinff, and dairying industries of the Commonwealth, and if the mode rate rates asked for by the union are- accepted by the Court a« an award it would mean an increase of over .£1,000,----000 in wagos per a.nnivm, or. about <£12 10s per worker. "The workers," adds the ''Gazette" "who would not invest 7s 6d (union tic-ket) to -secure J212 1C« must very i ndifiereiit. to their own interests. And they "must be very indifferent thinkers, if, after all their experience of the tactics of the master class, they think the capitalist controllers of the nu-.rkets will let them have ..-L'l2 UU worth for 7« (>d. Why even David McLaren admits that thein w-a«es gained in 2S;e\v Zealand l)y means of the Aibitra>tioii Court ha« befii more than cancelled by. the increase in tlie cost of living , . And the owners of the markets —the capitalists —fix the cost of living , .

TIiUTH may lie at *-l ie bottom of a well but oven the blind stumbles across it at times. Time t-ho Tory "Glasgow Herald" :—'While the country has srrc.wn enormous in its absolute wealth, wclc trade has expanded in every direction, while elementary and .secondary education have been rendered accessible io all classes, aixl while on tho whole there haw been a decided improvement .in the habits of the people, we arc confronted with the refiuarkable fact ihat the armies of poverty are enlisting , more and more recruits. What is even more disconcerting is the statement that the increase most jnanifest J3i the case or male paupers, and abl&bodied ma lee at that." One hopes the next truth the scribe quoted may stumble on will be that Socialism is the Only Hope.