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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 2 December 1880, Page 2

Last evening we published-a letter under the/signature of "G. Hawksworth," whoever he may be. The, writer informs us that • our ''' comments upon Mr. Foster's letter to the English papers have astonished a very large number of the working'men of this country." We shall not •permit ourselves, by a side wind, to be drawn into a renewal of the controversy on the Foster misrepresentations; In the honest performance of what we conceived to be'-our duty to this district and the Colony,' we opened fire on the rev. gentleman, and met with no response from the quarter from which we had a right to expeot it.- W^e shall not even hint at what appear to us to be' the reasons for this silence. Let the public judge for themselves. We shall merely say that, if the resignation with which our comments were reoeived indicate conversion to a more reasonable frame of mind, we have a right to expect that the salutary fruits of that conversion, will sooner or later show themselves.. We do not thank] Mr. Hawksworth for the innuendo contained in the sentence, " believing that a large portion of the Press is led on by interested parties to still further harass the unfortunate working men of the Colony by enticing more people to come from the United Kingdom and elsewhere," &c. Some people would call this impertinence. We call it ignorance. Mr. Hawksworth is not justified in writing thus of the Press of the Colony in the face of the patent fact that there is not a newspaper, so far as we know, that has counselled the pursuance of a policy anything approaching that of which he complains. From the North Cape to Invercargill the Press has been unanimous in its advocacy of the cessation of assisted immigration. Assisted immigration by the unanimous concurrence of the Press and Parliament has ceased so utterly that is now impossible to nominate a friend. What more does Mr. Hawksworth

want ? It is better, surely, to effect a restoration of the equilibrium of the labor market in this way than by the other means of which Mr. Hawksworth seems to approve. By one plan the influx of labor is arrested—by the other the influx of capital as well as labor maybe stayed. Wholesale untruthful accounts of the Colony and colonists are unnecessary, notwithstanding what Mr. HawkSworth - may say, and they will eventttjUE- recoi]^noß-4bei?.<.9 , ithe£S o xj J -sia6g of business is to be reinstated by exaggerating every ovil from which we have been pufferr ing and creating new ones on paper? Such unjustifiable and cruel conduct would tend to prolong the malady rather than oure it, if its authors were of a kind to surround their diatribes with even a tinsel authoritativeness. Mr. Hawksworth may accept our assurance that we are as careful of the interests of the working man as even he tries to be. The comments to which he objects were written as much in their interests as in those of other sections of the community. To bring discredit on the Colony means to arrest the investment of capital in the various industries which would absorb the present surplusage of labor. It may also to some extent decrease the flow of labor into

the Colony; but that would be very cold comfort to laborers who are already here, if the n stoppage of the inflow of capital either pro--6 longed their term of enforced idleness, or - kept their wages Ipw, We agaip admit that lour legislation has been unfavorable to the working man, and that it is so npw more - than ever. But what affects the working K man permeates through overy ramification of - our economy. The struggles of sfropr e beepers to keep their heads above water—f of farmers to raise sufficient money to buy '» seed—are demonstrative of this. Yet they have courageously pulled through the _ worst, and by the exercise of patience - and wisdom the working men will be eni abled speedily to do the same. We make t every allowance for the disposition of the 1 unemploye ito travel beyond the bounds of discretion in their endeavors to discover and j .expose the causes of their troubles; and if J we cannot follow them as far as they would 1 like us, it is because wc have a way of our * own of helping them, and not from | lack of sympathy. Mr, Hawksworth [ lays before us his full novel an 1 startling one, certainly. At least, Mr, Hawksworth is industrious, and, provided i he plays his cards well, we should think him s capable of adorning a position more fortunate, and, may we not say, more useful, than that in which hard times have landed him and his 49 coadjutors. He has undertaken the responsibilities of a statistician, and the results of his labors in that capacity he intends—at least he

says so in his letter—to send to '• almost all newspapers," and to agents of other countries, in the United Kingdom. He concludes this proclamation in this portentous language : "The reason for writing to you is that jf you, or any readers of your paper, have anything to say about the fairness qr honesty of our proceedings, let it be said now." He intended to have added, we imagine, "or for ever after hold your peace." We have prepared ourselves for the worst. If the prospects of the Colony should be blighted—if the shuttered windows of our business premises should indicate the total extinction of all remaining commeroial activity —if the doleful and piteous more: pork should hover about our streets, and I utter its solemn requiem over the " departed"—we shall know that Mr. G. Hawksworth's statistics have reached the United Kingdom, and shall, if we can "scrape together a few shillings," pack up our traps, and prepare to follow Mr. Hawksworth, or, even Mr. Foster. But whither should we flee ? Aye ! there's the rub.