The Oamaru Mail MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 20 December 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1880.

Thebe are about 100 men engaged on the Windsor-Livingstone line at the present moment. In pursuance of a brand new freak -with which the Government have been seized in connection with the now celebrated retrenchment policy, these men are to be set adrift on the 23rd of thi3 month. We suppose that this is by way of Christmas-bos ; and we fancy we can see them parading the streets of Oamaru during the holidays holding high carnival with the surplus cash that they have accumulated while in receipt of the munificent pay of 21s or 28s weekly. They will not even return to work immediately after the holidays. Jt is quite true that three-fourths of these men are promised harvesting work by the farmers and croppers in the locality of Windsor, and we think our readers will rejoice with these men that such a slice of good luck has befallen them, and pjourn with those who have not been so fortunate. The immediate dismissal of a fourth of these men by the Government will, however, neutralise the good that would accrue from the employment of three-fourths of them in harvesting. We freely admit that a certain number of these men might be dispensed with by the Government, but we do not admit the necessity for dismissing them. We have already disputed this point, and the feet that threefourths of them had made arrangements for harvesting work, prior to any hints being given that they would be discharged, proves that we were right, and that the Government were not warranted, at all events bo far as the Windsor men are concerned, in making the statement that those employed upon the railways preferred remaining in such employment, even at reduced wages, to accepting harvest work at fair remuneration. The work was fortunately available for three-fourths of them, and they accepted it. They have by their action proved themselves to be possessed of true grit, and we think that the Government might have retained them until the cpmmencement of harvest, early in the month of February, gave them an opportunity of carrying out their desire to benefit themselves and relieve the Government, at least for a season, of the necessity of providing them with work. We will go even further, and reiterate our opinion that those who cannot get work elsewhere at present should be retained until they can do so. The position of those who have promise of work will be bad enough, for they will pretty nearly be thrown on their beam ends by at least six weeks of enforced idleness, but the position of the remaining fourth, who will be added to the numerous other unr employed now hanging about our streets, will be pitiable, unless the harvesting operations in the district should necessitate their employment also. It is stated that the Windsor-Livingstone line has been atppped so that railway laborers may be available fpje harvest work, 'and that at the end of tbfg& jnpptha they will be

reinstated on the works. We hope that this is true. If it is not, sad indeed will be the condition of thousands of men in the Colony. Those employes on the Windsor-Livingstone line who will get farm work wili be compelled to pay out of their earnings while thus employed the liabilities they will incur during the six weeks' interval that they will be earning nothing, and will, nnle3S the Government, agniu takes tliem l>y the hand to tide tiiein over next winter, be thrown into a state of absolute destitution. Those who will not be so fortunate as to get harvest work will not have to wait so long for precipitation .into such a distressing condition. There are those who take a more hopeful view of things, and confidently predict that a satisfactory' solution of this labor question is close at hand. We trust that they may be right, and shall be glad to confess our mistake if circumstances should prove that they are so. But they are, we fear, too sanguine in their prognostications.