The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1876.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 6, 28 April 1876, Page 2

The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1876.

IlF.KKi:i:iN>'r t*» a telegram from our correspondent published in yesterday s issue, as to the larye sales of land proposed t<i be i-illctct by the Waste Lands Board, Mr. Do.vu.n II 1:1 r» is reported to have .stated at tlie meeting of tlic Board held last V* cdricsday as follows "If the public works were not prosecuted, serious results would ensue, .13 already there were indieatio »s of work becoming scarce." We should like to take the flattering unction to our souls that Mr. Ilt'.m intended to say that labour was becoming scarce, but unfortunately we cannot do so. There is nothing for it but to believe that the Provincial Secretary was correctly reported, though we are inclined to think that his statement made at the last meeting of the T \,;inl is not supported by facts. At the pivsscut time there are no doubt a number of men out of employment, but this may Ije part .ally accounted for from the fact that the harvest is only just over, and the men have not yet settled down to the ordinary work ir« which they were engaged previous to harvest operations commencing. We know, of course, that there are men who go about apparently looking for work, but who, at the ame time, fervently pray that they may not find any. These men belong to the class known out here as the real colonial loafer, frightened lest they should be ofFered a job, and ever ready to sponge on the genuine hard-working man. It was oEily the otherdaya case came under our own notice. We were in want of two men to assist in unloading some machinery. On asking two strong fellows if they wanted work, they replied in the aUlrmative, and both v\e:t ;-v;ed at their own terms — one shilling per hour. T > our surprise • <:w of them, after ht lping to uu'o-d a ten pound case, put his c >.'.t 0:1 again, anl infonned u; that he could not s-l ve at a job like that for £2 Bs. 1 week, and retired, .'.{tile h>;. mate laboured oil, and with overtime reduced our exchequer by £1 its. at the end of the week. We know for a fact that the man who refused to work for £J Bs. a week, or Bs. a day of eight hours, had not earned a penny for months, and yi't this fellow will hang round publichouses ami sponge on his friends, and then declare*, after the style of J. G. S. fit; \ NT, that there is no work to ho had in the Colony, an-I that persons who emi'T.iite to New Zealand come out to starve. We should like to know if 'the common labourer at ]l»;nc, without any definite trade, can command Ss. a day for eight hours work. If v.e remember rightly, the last advices from Home state that the labouring man is only earning los. a-week, and glad to get t' at sum regularly. But in Dune tin there are numbers of these loafers, and it is just possible that Mr. IloNU.n Ut:n» nr.:st have seen a lot of fellows of 111 i t stamp hanging about street corners, which induced him to state that work was getting scarce in the Province. It was only the other day that a 1-rge railwav contractor informed uss that he knew a !ot of men who, rather than work for him at £.l a-week, took a job undei some Chinamen for £'2 10s. As we stated in our introductory article in the first issue of The M ail, we admire the honest working man, anil will do all in our powet to further his interests ; but the pure, unvarnished loafer we cannot stand a_t any price.