Labour day. Its Object Lessons.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 67, 12 October 1901, Page 8

Labour day. Its Object Lessons.

ALTHOUGH the New Zealand wot kei is not even yet eompletelv satisfied with Ins lot lie is m many ways exception-

ally well off He is fairly paid, he does not work long hours, and when he has an opportunity he shows, in no unceitain way, that, wlnic fighting foi greater advantages, he does not overlook those he enjoys. An observer on the corner of our streets on Wednesday would note the whole-souled enthusiasm shown by lcpresentatives of various trades and callings * • * Ho would notice, in spite of the adversity of the elements, the dust, the gale, and the holes in the highways, the holiday-making air of those crowds, who strove to forget that they had anything else to do than manage a bannei m a gale of wind, or break the record for a 100 yards on the Basin Reserve Pride in their labour is shown by the elaborate and successful lesults shown in the perambulating devices, ambition to excel every other branch of labour in producing novel spectacles. The procession of the trades on Labour Day is productive of nothing but good * * » It stimulates the ambition and individuals and of trades They vie with one another m the procession, they contest on the sports ground, and they join in good fellowship bcfoie and aftei It is destructive of caste, and helpful to demociacy this annual celebration, and when the people cannot muster the requisite enthusiasm, pride m their pursuits;, and ambition to excel, their decadence has set in These demonstrations, and the popular interest m them, are evidence of the increasing prosperity of a land, which, m spi c of the complexity of its laws relating to laboni has amongst them some so good that makes the annual thanksgiving for them a day of national rejoicing * * ♦ But while those representatives who aie proud of labour enter enthusiastically into the spirit of the thing, the procession should have been double, nay treble, its length. Eleven affiliated societies to the Eight Hours Union were not represented in the procession, and the muster of members of affiliated unions was a very small percentage of their total members If those absentees arc glad of the position the societies enjoy, why do they not, like then brethren, demonstiate it by their presence ? There is no excuse for the apathy shown by the defaulters If Labour Day is to be a day of national rejoicing, let it be a lejoicing "en masse," and let each branch of industry send its representatives to swell a procession that should be one of the features of the year * • * No one behoves that oui labour laws aie so good that no improvement is needed, but, on the other hand, no one will deny that the basis of them is a good basis, and that, with eliminations that must eventuate on the examination of experiments, will place New Zealand in a very proud position in regard .o them It is a matter for congratulation that the people composing such a piocession as was seen on Wednesday piesented a spectacle of physical robustness and cheerfulness not to be excelled in the world. They each boie on their fates the nnpimt of fieedom, the satisfaction of having gained a lelaxation for something well pei formed We believe that if the country showed any signs of decadence, the faces of the masses would show it If the caiping cutics aie to be believed the time is almost upc foi a condition of affais opposite to the blight times we have experienced The Labour Day demonstration gives the lie dncct to the pessimists Happy, hearty, and contented, New Zealand laboiu is not wiecked yet If thcie aie breakers ahead, be sure the skippeis will weathei them There aie locks to be lemoved certainly, but they aic truly somewhat &ma.v Who shall say that they will give any tiouble to the passengers ?