DESTITUTION IN MELBOURNE. (From the Age.)

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 64, 27 October 1864, Page 3

DESTITUTION IN MELBOURNE. (From the Age.)

Thanks to Mr. Beaucheinp the public hare perfectly reliable information as to the oxisting destitution in Melbourne. The Benevolent Asylum "will contain no more ; the Immigrants' Home is overcrowded ; and the Hospital has opened its doors to the houseless as -well as the sick. Private benevolence declares itself unequal to the task of averting starvation from those who are unable to work, aad those who cannot work. The Legislature is invited to enact a poor law, in order to relieve those who have voluntarily borne the burden, and compel contributions from those who will not, of their own accord, give at all. It is difficult to say which is the most distressing circumstance — the existence of wide spread destitution or the refusal of the opulent to relieve it. A poor law simply renders compulsory contributions which ought to be given spontaneously and gratefully — gratefully, because the donors might have been themselves the recipients of charity. It is a scandal to this city that want should exist unrelieved ; it is scarcely less a disgrace that the want which comes from a want a lack of employment should exist at all. In all large communities there must neccessarily be poverty and distress, but it ought to be confined to the helpless and the improvident. It is a disgrace that able-bodied and willing men and women should be without employment, and a disgrace "wliicli- "fclie comimxTiitry is directly responsible for. Have we not been crying out for immigration ? Have we not been bringing |people Jto this country at the public expense? adding to the crowded ranks of the poor, through the funds which might have afforded employment to the idle and succour to the destitute ? We have arrived at that happy condition of society when the substratum is reduced to pauperism ; when the laborer is kept humble by threats of the workhouse ; and wages are regulated by the numbers dependent upon chari;y. We may congratulate the Argus on t?ie results of the policy it has so consistently advocated. It appropriates the land to thoso will not cultivate it, and, with the produce, commodities of foreign manufacture are purchased. Farming, it has maintained, will not pay, and manufactures will not pay ? andj at the same time, it has baen accusing* those who could not, under these circumstances, see that there was room for more population, of ignorance and stupidity. "Let us have immigration until a crisis conies," declared &c Argus. "Let people l>e brought " until there are bread riots — until the loaf be hoisted." Almost in these words our contemporary urged persistance in assisted immigration, the bringing here of a pauper population. We see the result. The community is becoming demoralised by pauperism, j Those that have been brought here at the public j eypense have either to be maintained by the public, ] or replace those who are now in idleness aiid j want. What shall wo say now to the industrious j .and intelligent population of (3-reat Britain ? 'Shall we boast of our golden land, of our great and wealthy metropolis, of our magnificient climate, and of 35,000,000 of acres of land still belonging to the S^ate? What have these great gifts of Providence done for us ? Pauperism is increasing with rapid strides) The Ladies' Benovolent Society has relieved no les3 than 1984 persons within sis, months— in a single fortnight 873. Six years ago there -^ere only 105' inmates of the Immigrants' Home, it now shelters 700, and in six months has relieved 2560, persons.. , The CoUingwood soupKfcchen has afforded Bustenance to 800 deserving recipients-— its' doors are now closed. Every night forty or fifty men sleep on the floors of the' Hospital common rooms, the pressure is bo great that they have no other place to go. The Argus has repeatedly asked if/ Providence designed that the population of this country should remaint stationary at half a million souls. We may repeat, the question. Here are the visiblo signs : of redundacy— of inability to find occupation for the people. V, Avarice, and ignorance have produced this raault. tn the ; midst of plenty, and ; with inexaustible resources, our people . starve. They may not touch the land becauaeit is the especial property of the wealthy — wemust have a "landed '•aristocracy." Capital will not direct itself to "manufactures, because usury and gambling are mors profitable. Willing hands are ready to supply those. wants which are now applied by for6ij{new,J)^t they aw jpower-

les^^thput.capitel' v tHe7 can do nothing, and it will not come to their aid. What becomes of Mr. Loader's magnificent theory that every immigrant is a source of wealth to the country because he consumes imports ? It is now reduced to practice. Persons who at some period wereimmigraniis are proving .the value of the mercantile, ,;• scheme of immigration. They are <>onaumirig : import9 somewhat; faster than merchantile benevolence cares for. They are eating bread they have not grown, wearingclpthes they did not make, sleeping under shelter they did not construct j and : the truly philanthropic; appalled, cry out for a poor law, -to. avert, from these consumers of merchandise, star* vation! If the means whereby these persons shall; become producers as well as consumers are not provided:--— if their wants are in advance of the means' of .gratifying them— how can they be other than paupers : -r-how can they be a gain, to the community ? .Lodging in the Immigrants' Home, ■ ■ oh the floors of the Hospital, or underneath verandahs, does not increase the demand for house accommodation, or augment the value of property. Profits are not greater because of the consumption of commodities by those who cannot pay for them. The whole matter lies in a nutshell. .The great mass of mankind live by supplying the wants of each other. Poverty comes of an excess of consumers over producers. Over production may bring about financial crises, but it never rendered a country poor. The converse is nearer the truth. There are in this country two great producing interests, squatting and mining. If the gold and the wool are made to purchasein aforeign country the commodities consumed by those directly or indirectly concerened in their production, it is obvious that the rest of the population must be pauperised. All who are not necessary to the production of wool and gold are an unprofitable excess. They are not wanted ; the products of their labor are bought in a foreign market ; the fund for employment of artisans, created by the wool and the gold, is carried paßt them to feed the same class in . another country. Just as one j chattel cannot be, in all parts, the work of two men, so, if that chattel be obtained from abroad, the home workmen has no interest in it. If the production of wool and gold engaged the whole population, the case would be different. The desirability of manufactures, as affording a preferent description of labor, might be discussed by the politician and the philanthropist, but there would be no lack of employment of some kind. Bad legislation, and the stumbling blocks to progress which selfishness and ignorance have interposed to arrest progress, are the causes of a disaster which must be ruinous to the reputation of the colony abroad. The Weekly Despatch would gloat over the report of the meeting at Mr. Beauchamp's stores. Its singular hatred of all that is Victorian would have a malicious gratification in disclosing the simple and unimpeachable truth. Surely it is time that patriotic and inselligent citizens saw the folly of the course of legislation so persistently followed for the last ten years. Will they not see that the prosperity of a country is built up by caring for its own peoplej? Trade and commerce, rightly used, are but the instruments of making mankind happier and wealthier. Of what benefit are they if they render them poor and wretched ; Is the chattel to become superior to the .man — the product of labor to crush the laborer ?