The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1913. THE SORROWS OF A PATRIOT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8343, 1 February 1913, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1913. THE SORROWS OF A PATRIOT

This Dominion is getting to bo an awful place for decent folk to dwell in. It has passed under the hands of Labour, and the monster is kicking every on© else down, and keeping them down. So wo learn from a philanthropist of tho name of Jones who used words to that effect when addressing tho Prime Minister at Hastings on tho subject of tho dearth of juvenile labour in his canning factory. Apparently Labour has in some way kicked itself out of the paradise presided over by the complaining philanthropist. But we will not press the point. Wo prefer to understand Mr Basil Jones without too close an analysis of tho language he has unquestionably misused. So much at least is due to tho overwrought condition of his heart. Has he not told an interviewer of Napier that ho “has a real interest” in the young people who won’t como to his paradisaic factory F It is an interest shown by protests against tho addling of their poor young brains by too much learning, as well as by earnest complaints about the too-short hours of work now prevailing in this demoralised country. The protest of this philanthropist is, in fact, dimly figurative rather than literally exact; but it does not obscure his meaning. Ho is oppressed in his business by the luxury in which labour is nowadays allowed to live. It can afford to keep its children at, home after tho ago of fourteen. It can aspire to carrying on their education something beyond tho three R’s. It may even hope to got them a fair share of all the opportunities of advancement hitherto the happy hunting ground of “their betters.” As a consequence, hard as it may he to credit, boys of fourteen are actually going into secondary schools. They not only get free tuition there, hut, horrible to relate in a world growing topsy-turvy, they may oven, by tho ridiculous and demoralising process of passing examinations, obtain scholarships. This comes of that -dreadful Education Act. Wo remember there were predictions when the Education Act was in tho Bill stage, many years ago. The prophets were chiefly ancestors of Mr Jones, the philanthropist of Frimley Cannage, and tho main point with them was a fear, nay, a certainty, that there would bo no on© to black , their boots. Wc don’t know whether our philanthropist blacks his own boots now, or whether ho blacks the boots of other people. But we may aver that his lamentations are signs of tho fulfilment of bis ancestral predictions. It was not always thus. There was a time, not so very long ago, when philanthropy got plenty of cheap juvenil© labour ; when scholarships and other temptations of the Evil One were kept out of tho way of tho young, tho young of the departs ment of Labour, which is , so unsuited to such things; when tho highest ideal of Labour (not then spelt with a capital initial) was to sink its family life in the welter of tho factories. Now there is only one boy of sixteen in tho Paradise of tho Factory Jones—no girls—and it is actually found necessary to permit the women to bring their encumbrances to the factory to riot in an ilhnannered, badly-brought-up sort of way, in some place called the “refectory,” while the unprincipled mothers do the work which, but for tho outrageous presence of their offspring, they would not look at. For this there is another cause, “the advance in the wages of artisans and labourers.” All of which lamentative and detailed information Mr Jones conveyed to the Prime Minister and his Napier interviewer. It comes to this, then, between the Education Act and the Arbitration Act, the children of Labour have got into a position dangerous to the rest of the community generally, and to the Factorial Paradise in particular, of Mr Jones. Mr Jones flew to the Prime Minister for relief. When in the presence, he held forth inter alia on the position of apprentices in the Dominion. Why? Does it require an apprenticeship before a child of fourteen can take advantage of the splendid opportunities of the cannage system ? But the subject of anprentire.ship is rather thorny, as Mr Reardon proved the other day when bo exposed the hollowness of the “restriction” protest in the case of the ■slaughtermen by proving that in other trades under awards of the Arbitration Court the percentage was even less than under the demand of tho slaughtermen. But it is useless pursuing the subject. Is not Mr Jones a philanthropist? A,nd does not philanthropy cover multitudes of errors? That is why Mr Jones talked to the Premier about apprentices, about the employment of men and women, about the whole position of Labour, while he was merely supposed to he Minding to the dearth of child labour in his factory. As a general champion of the rights of society against the wrongful advantages of Labour Mr Jones was quite

within his own circle. Mas he not in the presence of the chief of “Reform” ? In reply tho Head of the “Reform party was characteristic. _ Ho offered ■iioney. “He bad,” he said to the deputation, “given instructions to havs i scheme prepared making it possible for fruit growers to got a loan from the Crown enabling them to establish canning and jam factories and cool 'tdrage. He hoped to see that become '.aw during tho next session.” There is nothing like jiroraptness —unless it may bo relevancy. There was certainly promptness, for tho Prime Minister ;umped straight at tho canning factory bonus system. But wo i n valn for any sign of relevancy, fflio deputation with tho philanthropist had lamented that there wore not enough labourers for the paradises they have erected under the factory system. Mr Massey offers them the means of increasing the number of these empty millenniums for children. If this is not a gross and palpable pietenc© what is it? Consider that the spokesman re presented a factory on which he boasted that tho owner had expended £50,000. Consider that tho said_ owner is reputed to bo. worth anything one likes to mention within reason. Where is the reason for this offer of a subsidy for canning and jam and cold storage.-' of_ what use anyhow _ are canning facilities and jam factories and cold storage if there is to ho a monopoly by the secondary schools of the only portion of the population that can work in tho canning paradise where tho real interest of the masters is shown by shielding their young folk from too much learning and protecting them against tho relaxing tendencies of short hours? It is true that Mr Massey did say he would do something to supply the deficiency of labour, and that ho spoke of _ education with the air of a hero nailing colours to a mast. But why were those performances not thought sufficient for the occasion? On the wholo, tho hasty offer of money smacks just a little of a system once vigorously denounced by “Reformers” as “Spoils to tho victors.” The victor side on this occasion was represented by an interest of £50,000. It is just another of tho turns of Queer street into which “Reform” seems to have wandered rather hopelessly.