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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5540, 30 December 1878, Page 2

Notwithstanding that labor of almost evory description is so highly paid in the Australian colonies in general, and in this colony in particular, and that. consequently the laboring classes, as a body, are so well to do as to enable them to maintain their independence against any attempt on the part of their employers to trench in any way oh their rights and liberties, we often hear the murmur of discontent, which in some few instances has broken forth in open hostilities, already indicative that sooner or later the old world struggle between capital and labor will take place in our colonies. To hasten the time of such a struggle is evidently a part of the policy of the present Government, some of its members, but notably the Premier, not being alow, especially in platform harangues, to represent the laborer as being down-troddeu and oppressed by the capitalist, and deprived of his natural and inalienable lights by the greed of what ho is pleased to call the land monopolists, as if he were a serf to his employer, and prohibited by statute or some other insurmountable barrier from acquiring or holding property in land. We need scarcely say that there can be nothing -raoro-absurU, "tliTTKame LlUi o~moru calculated to subvert social order, and bring sorrow and trouble on the laborer himself, than the fostering of such an idea, because the natural tendency of such a feeling when once engendered will be to create class distinctions, and to set class against class, producing social enmity and trade feuds, where peace, harmony, and the greatest good-will would otherwise exist. No close or even cursory observer who looks into the state of our society and general operation of our industries, can fail to see that labor, whatever the Premier and a few malcontents may say to the contrary, ia a species of capital much in demand, and consequently commands a high price or a fair share of the profits in whatever industry it may be invested.’ The importance of labor as an element in national progress, and the dignity that should ever attach itself to that on which tho creation of wealth so much depends, is far too often lost sight of, both by the capitalist and by the laborer himself, capital in money, without being supplemented by the capital of labor, being useless as an instrument in the production of wealth. Beyond doubt one of tho great fallacies of modern times, especially in the colonies, is to regard manual labor as derogatory to the dignity of well-bred men—a title which all with an ordinary amount of self-respect are bold enough to be anxious to claim. Hence we find the ranks of all kinds of professions crammed, the hangers-on for the Civil Service being legion. For every post that admits of .a black coat, a white shirt, and unsoiled hands, there are fifty waiting for any opening that offers. It is from this anti-manual-labor class that the cry is often raised that they cannot find suitable employment, while our agriculturists cry out for more laborers, our Crown lands remain unoccupied and unproductive, and our mechanical workshops are but scantily supplied. A great deal of this state of things arises from a mistaken idea as to tho real dignity and importance of manual labor as compared with that of so-called more genteel life which attaches itself to the various professions to which so many aspire, to the sacrifice of their real social well-being and happiness. Parents are by no means blameless in this matter, as many of them out of mistaken kindness instil into the minds of their children from infancy the fact that they should aspire to and prepare themselves for some higher sphere in life than manual labor.