ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 225, 25 September 1847, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Sir, — If an appeal to the common sense and humanity of the owners and dealers in cattle be urged in vain, to stop the gross outrage every day done, of driving their most furious beasts through the very heart of the town, and at all hours, do for any sake strive to deter them by another sort of remonstrance, and call their attention to the consequences that may follow to themselves, in case of serious accidents. Take the instance yesterday, at one o'clock mid-day, of hurrying a wild animal along the beach all the way to Wade's Town. It must hare been a miracle if something unfortunate did not occur in its dangerous career. A nota bent from you editorial ly, et ex cathedra, will have more effect than will the communication of a private person. I am, Sir, Your very obedient servant, A Townsman. September 24, 1847.

The Government Gazette of September 23 contains a notification addressed to public officers, intimating that the usual office hours are from 10 a.m., to 4 p.m., and that the strictest regularity and punctuality will be required in their attendance at their respective departments. — The following petition of the labourers employed on the roads with his Excellency's reply is extracted from the same Gazette : —

PETITION. Unto His Excellency Lieutenant-Go-vernor Eyre. Humbly Sheweth, — That in consequence of your Excellency's resolution of eraploying natives on the roads, has caused an immense number of your fellow-countrymen to be thrown out of employment, men who are both able and willing to work, and who find it impossible to get work on the beach, and many going about and do not know how to find a meal's victuals, and not a roof to find shelter under, who have to sleep at night either on the beach exposed to all kinds of weather or in the bush. Shipping there is none, or, at most, what there is can only engage a few hands, and those few engaged, by otters leaving, to be placed in the same circumstanc >s as ourselves. Farming work where is it to be had ? we can find none, and if to be had, what is the paltry pittance they give in the shape of wages ? It may be said that it is sufficient to keep us from starvation. True, but is it to be expected that men are to work late and early to gain no more than will help them to eke ouc a miserable existence, and is it possible that a Briton is to be placed on a par with natives, who can live for about one third cheaper than we can, who have never been accustomed to the uses of money, and never known what the want of it is, who have their gardens to raise as much as supply their wants ? Is it to be expected that in a British colony, which is monthly receiving emigrants, who leave their home and all that is dear to them in the hopes of bettering themselves, are to be landed on a beach to starve, or should they get work receive no more than keep them in life, when they can have no hopes of being able to get clothing, and when nothing is allowed for the wear and tear of man's body ? No, surely these things are not to be ; we would fain hope so, and therefore your petitioners would feel grateful by again employing us on the roads, or devise some other channel where we could find employment. Something must be done your Excellency, men cannot starve, and if things go on so we cannot answer for ourselves ; hunger will cause things to be done that would never have entered in our heads otherwise. We therefore humbly petition your Excellency to consider the matter over well. There are now upwards of fifty persons unemployed, and more expected daily from the fisheries, who are mostly as bad off as what we are having had bad seasons. We therefore hope your Excellency will do something for us, for which, as in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray. (Signed) Arthur Goldburn, and others. We have formed a deputation to wait upon your Excellency to state our case more particularly. To which his Excellency was pleased to return the following reply :—: — To Arthur Goldburn, and the workmen on whose behalf he is deputed. I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your petition on the subject of the change which has lately taken place on the road parties, stating that many of you having been thrown out of work are now unable to get employment elsewhere, and are likely to be plunged into great distress.

I should regret extremely should such be the case, but when I daily hear the employers of labour complain that they have great difficulty in. procuring workmen, and are unable to extend their cultivations or improvements in consequence ; that the rate of wages (as I am myself aware) is exorbitantly high, and that the Government road parties monopolize the little European labour in the colony. 1 cannot believe that if you are, as you state yourselves to be, both able and willing to work, you cannot obtain constant and remunerating employment. I must remind you that the Government are not bound, and could not possibly find the means if they wished it, to employ all persons who might emigrate from Great Britain to the colonies, at high or exorbitant wages. Iv your own cases too it must not be forgotten that in emigrating to this country, you did so under arrangements with which the Government bad nothing to do ; and for the success or failure of which they were not responsible. Should, however, such an unfortunate statt of things arise in this colony as you seem to contemplate (but which in present circumstances I cannot believe possible), and many of her Majesty's subjects be really unable to procure work, and be left in a destitute condition, I should deem it my duty — as I am sure it would be the wish of her Majesty that I should as far as I could — to relieve this distress, and to afford her suffering subjects that subsistence which they could not procure for themselves. Do not, however, misunder* stand me : I could not and should not be justified in doing more than affording the means of necessary subsistence ; and this you admit, in your petition, you have yet the means of obtaining for yourselves. With respect to the roads, I would briefly make one or two observations : They are works of great magnitude and importance, undertaken for the general good, and requiring both time and large means to complete them. When finished, they will throw open new and extensive tracts of country, and by enabling settlers and others to push farther out with their farms or their stock-stations, will be the means of affording to the labouring classes that very work which you are now seeking ; if left incomplete, they will be available to no one, and will rather have been a positive evil, from having created a sudden stimulus to occupations of all kinds, only to be checked by an abrupt termination. To prevent this very serious evil is my bounden duty : I need not inform you that Government, any more than individuals, have not unlimited resources ; certain amounts only can be expended in certain ways, and if these are not so economized in application as to complete the work they are appropriated for, these works must remain unfinished. Thus, in the case of the roads, if Government continued to pay the rates of wages they have hitherto done, they would be unable to complete them, and the whole colony, and yourselves among the number, would suffer' in j consequence. Another point in your petition seems an apparent dissatisfaction at being, qs you term it, placed on a par with natives. lam sure I need only point out your error to remove it. You are, as you observe, with I trust a just pride, Britons : remember too, that Britons are just and generous — too confident in their own character and capabilities to fear comparison or competition with any, and too noble to undervalue another race because they happen to be of another colour. I admit as stated in your Petition, that.the natives can live cheaper than Europeans, and it is owing to this very cause that we are able to make the roads which will, as completed, open out and afford to you constantly increasing employment at the various homesteads and stations to which these roads will lead. Were they to have been carried on solely by European labour, they might indeed have been commenced, but certainly never could have been completed. Another circumstance to which I would direct your attention, and it is an important one, is — Many of you have travelled about the country, and have seen how little cultivation is carried on by Europeans, and how many of the articles of food are supplied, and almost wholly supplied, by the maories ; reflect a little, and consider what would have been your position if there were no natives from whom to obtain pigs, potatoes, and even wheat, certainly at lower rates than you could either buy them from other colonies, or produce them yourselves ; — consider, too, that the employment of the natives on the roads not only enables the Government to give you the advantages which those roads will offer when completed, and which they could not possibly do if there were no natives to employ, but it enables them also to put the natives in a position to improve and extend tbeir cultivations, and thereby probably afford to you the necessaries of life at a cheaper rate another year. In conclusion, I would repeat to you your, own expression, " that something, rjaust be done ;" but, my friends, it must be done by

yourselves — instead of holding out for higher rates of wages than the settlers can afford to pay, manfully submit to a change which you know must come, and at once, by working at reasonable rates, enable the employers to extend their operations, and give you more steady and constant work. Some of ycu have probably been in the neighbouring colonies, and have seen that, after wages have been for a time very high, there, they have as certainly fallen — and so it must be here ; no one caa be expected to employ labour unless he can obtain it at such a rate as will enable him to derive a* profit from it, and this you know cannot be done at the high rate at which wages have lately been in this colony ; let me earnestly advise you, therefore, to reflect calmly and coolly, and to offer your services to the settlers and other employers at such .wages as they can afford to pay, and by thus doing, shew that you are sensible and reflecting men, and that you are disposed to make that exertion for yourselves, which alone will place you in the position you wish for, and by enabling masters fo extend their operations, secure to you lair and constant employment. Edward John Eyre, Lieutenant- Governor. Government House, Wellington, September 18, 1847.

[From the Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. B.] By a clause in the Shipping Dues Act, which has just passed the Council, all colonial or other vessels engaged in the coasting or inter-colonial trade, which are by law exempted from the payment of pilotage fees, are required to hoist, within one league of the heads, flags similar to those used at Fort Phillip, showing the port whence they last sailed. If they fail to do this, they will be charged the full rate of pilotage. In order thai do vessels may be taken by surprise, and that time may be afforded to procure flags, this clause does not come into operation until the Ist of October next. This provision has been rendered necessary by vessels from Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand entering the port without making any signal, and sometimes being at anchor before any information is obtained by the signal master. The signal master is often obliged to wait for the return of one of the reporters from a vessel before he can lioist any signal for her. This will not be the case in future.