The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, May 12. THE QUESTION OF THE DAY.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 6, 12 May 1894, Page 8

The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, May 12. THE QUESTION OF THE DAY.

Monhy is scarce. So everybody says, and it is an old adage “ That what everybody says must be true.” Anyway, there is no denying the fact that the people, as a whole, are not so sure about the immediate future as they were a year ago. There’s an idea afloat that there’s trouble about. What has produced this feeling ? There must be a reason for it, and a common answer is that produce is low. Perhaps so, but all the products of the land have been higher during the last two or three years than for many years previously, that is, taking them on the whole. Grain may not have brought the price it did some years ago, but then the frozen mutton came in, and the profits from that more than made up the deficiency from other sources. Railways and good roads give the farmer the greatest facilities for conveying his produce to market, so that it is that with even a lower range of prices the fanner ought not to be in any bad way. But the people of the towns are uneasy and unsettled, and it is somewhat ominous that at the present time the unemployed difficulty is assuming rather formidable dimensions. Almost every day telegrams appear in the papers having reference to the unemployed. • They are becoming a great army, and , are being moved about the country in divisions or batches. Here the question arises—Have we, by the system of the last three years, created this “ unemployed ” army ? It looks as though wc had got the old man on our back, and that we shall have to carry him about for a very long/ time. Start State farms. Certainly. We are doing’ that now. Let the publip works on this principle also. Well, we are doing that too, but still they come. What next must we do ? Start a State bank ; money for e/erybody, and no longer a scarcity. Thrt must be seen to at once, but, as the Colonial Treasurer, according to the Southland Times, is playing the wag, we cannot build our hopes on him. But here is another solution : —The Minister for

Labour is going, during the ensuing-session-of-Parliament, to introduce whole batch of Labor Bills. Tail ought to put things right. Em plover s will be delighted at the prospect., oik'S capitalists, both large and small, will 1 rush at once to start new industries, and the unemployed difficulty will at. once disappear, because, in additions to the workers employed, a wholesarmy of Inspectors will be requireuL The crowd that hang about the Parlia—-j ment buildings during the session will be scattered all over the country,where they may not be exactly welcomed, but Members, at anyrate, will give a sigh of relief. If Legislation could make a country prosperous, New Zealand, by this. time, ought to be the most prosperous nation under the sun. Then there are the lawyers, which the of New Zealand statutes bring intoexistence. They ought to reckon for" something ; though if they go on increasing as they have been doing, there will be a cry of the enemployed from them, and Mr Seddon will have to put more Bills through. Evidently the most progressive natiois under the sun has not got quite on the right track yet. Are we going too fast or too slow P What’s the matter P Well, we shall find that out by-and-bye ; but, in the meantime, there is food for reflection. It may be that w r e are expecting the State to too much, and that we are allowing it to meddle with things of purelyprivate concern. That the silent power, money, is leaving us is too true. Are we right in putting the shackles on industry ? For the last fifty years the great Liberal party in England havebeen taking them off, and instead of going forward we are going backward. Yes, back to the old feudal times when the State ruled the daily life of the people iu every particular. Yes,back to the dark ages, when the king and the church were dominant. Extremes meet. Your new Democrat is possibly only a baser sort of Toryafter all. From the earliest historic times the law of England empowered certain parties to fix a scale of prices for every necessary- of life. Food, fuel, clothing, work and wages were all State regulated. The prices of such things as fuel and ordinarywages were absolutely fixed bystatute, but the prices of such things as bread, beer and board wages were generally fixed by the proclamations of the duly appointed authorities in the several districts, as the wealth of the district in corn was great or small. Many old statutes throw much light upon this matter —l3 Richard 11.,c.B. runs as follows : “ Forasmuch as a man cannot put the priceof corn and other victuals in certain, it isaccorded and assented that the Justices of the eace in every county shall make proclamation by discretion according to the dearth of victuals, how much every mason, carpenter, tiler and other craftsmen, workmen and other' labourers by the day, as well in harvest as in other times of the year, after their degree,shall take by the day with meat and drink, or without meat and drink, and that every man obey such proclamations from time totime as a thing done by Statute.” Yes, Parliament has one more Bill to put through, and then New Zealand Labour Legislation will be complete.