The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1243, 12 April 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1880.

The working men of Wellington the other day, encouraged by a letter which npjicared in one of the Wellington papei-s from the hand of one of their class, held a public meeting and disposed of the subject of the West Coast railway, once and for all; that is, from a working man's point of view. They, in effect, said the Go-| venunent cannot undertake this work in the ordinary way, because there is no inonev available for it j and we

have no employment because this work cannot be undertaken. We will make sacrificial terms that will secure tie construction of the railway and save us and our families from the threatened dread hardships of an approaching winter at a nominal cash cost to the country. These are some of the more important features of their proposal : —Village settlements to be established along the line ten miles apart, such settlements to be composed of 25-acre allotments, to be sold to the prospective navvy-agriculturist villagers at L2 per acre." These navvy-agriculturists to be employed in constructing the line, and to receive 6s, 7s, and Ss per day. according to their ability to work; or rather what they consider to be an equivalent, as follows :—Bations Is 3d per head, 10s per week for i pocket money," and the balance to be devoted to paying for the land. But ! a condition was added that holclws of I these village allotments should, if neces--1 saiy,be allowed 10 yearsforthe payment of "the purchase money of such allot- ! ments. This proposal was supported by a section of the "Wellington Press, at first in its entirety, but afterwards from the same source emanated a confession that perhaps it might, if entertained by the Government, require some modification. We think that there is no reason to doubt that it would. All classes of the population of Wellington were cleeplv interested in the construction of this line, which they assert would concentre in their city the trade of the southern interior ol the North Island. Conflicting interests made common cause to accomplish this design. The Press has been eloquent and undefutisjaWe: atone timeberiting up contingents to the tune of the poor - unemployed" at another, to that of the duty of the Government towards Wellington and the colonv. They seemed not to know which to "pity most —the merchants and sl:opkee|>ers"of the Empire City, or the hundreds of labourers that thronged its

streets. Apparently a very fair system of co-operation was instituted —the unemployed were to lend their name and the Press and citizens v.onld lend their influence. Thus we were treated to the arguments, What is to become of the poor unemployed and their families? and what is to become of the eitv of Wellington? —if this railway be not undertaken. Absorbed by the magnificence of their cause, ifc is not snipming that the Press and people of Wellington were oblivious of the fact that the eyes of the Colony were upon their movements —that each of their arguments was canvassed on its merits. Had they stopped to think rationally thev would themselves have made those ! modifications in the crude scheme ! which they thought, and which colonists who do not occupy the proud position of denizens of the hub of New Zealand knew, would be necessary. We know that the laboring classes of the Colony are in straits, and we claim to be as sympathetic in their behalf as colonists should be—or even as the citizens of Wellington. But we protest against the unemployed of Wellington receiving exceptional treatment. There are unfortunately other unemployed in the Colony who would, or .should, be glad to obtain work at even less than the rates mentioned in the

agreement we have quoted, without stipulating that they should have land contiguous to a line of railway, at a price less than the land would realise

;it public auction -without such a superior means of communication -with itri important centre of population and port of shipment. If the Government had adopted these suggestions they would have instituted a precedent that would have created unemployed and deprived the Colony of the cream of its crown lands for a song. The Government have laid down the rale that, in the present condition of the Colony's finances, no railways are to he made that will not " pay." That means that they must pass through and open up ample fertile lands. If this West Coast line would do this it is plain that the unemployed of Wellington have made suggestions that would secure them benefits that would render it obligatory on them to bless the day that they found themselves with "no work to do.' 1 It is the duty of the Government to assist the unemployed, where necessary to do so, in such a manner as to, as far as possible, mitigate -their troubles without ni is a p pro p ria t ing either public funds or public estate." The wisest and most equitable method of doing this is to employ them on works of

utility and pay them a rate of wages : which while consistent with the ; impoverished state of the Colonial exchequer, will enable them and their families to live. Seven or eight shillings a day is out of the question—to part with land on the terms proposed would be suicidal. Compliance with the request of the Weliiiigtonians would deprive the Colony, to a considerable extent, of the means of paying for the

construction of the West Coast J ine,aiid be a violation of the principle which it is on all sides deemed absolutely necessary to adopt. Our indebtedness is such that the remaining Colonial estate must be made to realise the highest possible price. To this end, where desirable, railways should be constructed, and the lands thus enhanced in value sold by public auction openly and fairly. Any other policy would land the Colony into a financial difficulty from which it would never emerge. If the country through which the West Coast railway would pass is of the excellent quality depicted by the Wellington Press, it would be worth at least LS or LlO per acre on the completion of the line. To grant the request of the Wellington unemployed would be to benefit them at a sacrifice of from L 60,000 to LSO,OOO, even if they were not so exacting as to require ten years credit. This is reckoning the whole of the land that they would probably absorb, supposing that they numbered 400, as agricultural land. The loss would perhaps be even greater than we have shown, because, if another suggestion contained in the scheme were adopted, to the effect that there should be a station at every ten miles or so along the line—and we suppose that some such idea would be earned out by the Government, should the line be constructed—much of the land, if not the greater portion of it, which the Government is asked to grant, would be more valuable than we have denoted as town allotments. We should like to see the unemployed difficulty surmounted, but this end can never be accomplished by the means suggested, which would only help to shift the difficulty from the shoulders of the unemployed to those of a nation.