South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2216, 24 April 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1880.

Txik Englishman’s proverbial privilege appears lately to have been adopted with a vengeance by the unemployed of the laboring classes in Hew Zealand. They grumble vociferously and continually. In Christchurch they complain because the Government will not supply them with land, implements, and stock to begin farming with ; in Wellington, the complaint is that the Ministry will not construct a railway to the West Coast with special settlements for their special advantage ; in Dunedin they have quarrelled with the Government relieving ollicer, the Hon. Mr Dick, because he objects to their earning anything more than a bare subsistence out of the Otago Central railway. The most unseemly complaint that has yet found expression, however, comes in the form of the following telegram from Oamaru “Working men with families complain bitterly of the terms offered by Government on the WiudsorLivingstone railway. Men with large families, or even moderately large families, will lose money by accepting work, owing to the rate for rations beingfixed too high, or that of wages too low.” How what are the facts ? These encumbered working men arc provided with piece-work at rates which,provided they arc capable navvies will enable them, in fine weather, to earn 28s a week. In addition to this magnificent remuneration, the Government provides tents and tools and supplies rations at the rate of Is fid per head per day. The liberality of these provisions arc so apparent that we confess that wo arc astonished at the telegram. As the children of the laborer get thenrations at half price, a man with a wife and an average family of four will only have fins to contribute to the Government weekly out of the 2<Ss which he earns, provided he is an expert pick and shovllist. and it never rains. This will leave him with arrears amounting- to 7s, clothing, fuel, and other little comfortswhich he must provide for, we presume, by begging or stealing. Should he have a family of seven, however—and some working men arc wonderfully prolific—his weekly debit balance for rations alone will amount to i"! Os lid. lie will thus find himself, even should he consent to lead a savage existence, and dispense with the ordinary comforts of civilization such as bools, shoes, and clothing, not to speak of beer and tobacco, a state debtor to the tune of over UoO per annum. Yet we are told with such blessings at their disposal these working men complain bitterly.

It is very evident that the working men of New Zealand, especially the unemployed, arc badly advised. They have been pampered by the Government when they should have been allowed to shift for themselves, and thus .they arc gradually becoming unreasonable. The facilities which they enjoy for bringing their condition and grievances before Ministersof the Crown are detrimental in the extreme. They arc destructive of that spirit of enterprise and independence which, in a young colony like this, possessing working men noth large families, and neither money, marbles, nor employment, should be diligently cultivat/d. It is unquestionable that in no other part of the world are working men and their families invited to work hard on the public works of the State, and run up a heavy score with their employers. No red republican nor democratic agitator ever contemplated the conferring of such a privilege on the great unwashed or unemployed. The rights of labor are good things in the abstract, but the practical results of allowing destitute working men to get into debt with the Government o'. - a country cannot fall to be ruinous. If the Government would lake warning they have only to look atr the slate of

affairs in St. Petersburg, or Tor that matter, in Melbourne, whore a Premier lias been threatened, because while finding appointments for ill-used civil servants, he cannot comply with tiro requirements of hungry demagogues. Let us hope that the Minister for Public Works will have sufficient courage to speak candidly to the married grumblers of the Lrving-stonc-Windsor line. If he does so lie will rc-ccho the sentiments of the Hon. Mr Dick, that, “beggars must not be choosers,” adding that if they don’t like to take up the Government pick and go naked and in debt, they can resort to (he crowbar ; and if they don’t care about either they can emulate the example of the member for the Dunstan, who is alleged to have lived on Australian snakes, and seek sustenance during the coming winter from the eels in the river Waitaki.