The Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1876.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 41, 8 June 1876, Page 2

The Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1876.

Some time since we commented 011 a remark made by Mr. Doxald Esid at a recent sitting of the Waste Land Board. Mr. Heid stated on that occasion his belief work was becoming scarce in tlie Colony. We endeavoured to prove that Mr. lis id's assertion was incorrect, and we instanced several cases in which, strong able-bodied men had actually refused work. It appears we were not singular in this conclusion, for our contemporary the "Bruce Herald " corroborates our statements. In its last issue our contemporary says : —"At the present time managers of stations and farmers find it impossible to procure able-bodied men to do the work that has to be done at this season of .the year ; and to\give ail instance of the truth of what we liaye asserted, we may state that in the Tefibt-district the farmers and squatters have been glad to avail themselves of the services of Chinamen. The proprietor of one of the labour offices in Dune din has found it impossible to meet the demands made for ploughmen and agricultural labourers, and that demand is still 011 the increase. Thousands of men can find employment in Otago at a wage of seven shillings a day." ISTow on the face of an assortion like this one, how, we ask, can persons like Mr. Heid go prating about the country that there is no work to do. It is true that the work requires searching for, because we know that eiiployers of labour are not in the habit of loitering in jrablie-houses and hanging round street-corners in the hope of finding working-men, but if these fellows who are ever so anxious to grumble about the scarcity of employment will only make a slight eilbrt, they will not find much trouble in obtaining a fair reaisßerration "for a fail' day's labour. IffWrnifießs? to be regretted that a paper like the " Daily Tini'is should descend so low as to endeavour to make political capital out of what it imagines to be the grievances of the working-man. Finding that the principles it is struggling to enunciate cannot be thrust clown the throat of the upper-ten, it has, as a last resource, resorted to the work-ing-man business, and hopes by raising an unnecessary howl in their favour, to gain their support, and thus carry out the incomprehensible political programme it has in view. TVe shall see liow the scheme will work. We credit the labouring classes in this Colony with sufficient, common sense to detect the little game of our contemporary, and it will be found that we are not far out in our estimation of the Colonial working-man.