OTAGO.

Southland Times, Issue 726, 20 September 1867, Page 6

OTAGO.

. MEETING- OF THE UNEMPLOYED (From the " Daily Times" Sept. 11.) Mr James G-ordon Stuart Grant apparently finds it necessary again to try to force himself into notoriety ; and he is again trying to do that by arrogating the •position of a champion of the working classes. When somebody, whose name was not to be ascertained, sent the. crier round the city two or three weeks ago to announce a meeting of unemployed, Mr Grant took advantage of the original failure to secure such a. meeting; and for an hour, on the next day, heraved in the Octagon to those who were minded to listen and to laugh at him. As the socalled chairman of the meeting, Mr Grant proposed a resolution having no real re-, lation to the question whether there were unemployed men in Dunedin who had tried to get work and had failed to eet it ; and that resolution, which nobody seconded, was " put" by Mr -Grant, and declared to be carried. Mr Grant was busy again yesterday. . We do not know whether he was the causer of the gathering of 40 or 50 men in or near the Octagon during the forenoon ; but men to that number did go yesterday to the Government Buildings, and Mr Grant went with them or arrived almost at the same time. Mr Duncan, the Secretary of ; Land and Works, when entering the buildings was addressed by Mr Grant to this effect : — " Here are men whom you call ' loafers.' They want work : can't your fine Government contrive to give them employment?". Mr Duncan attempted to ascertain how, many of the men wanted . work, and how long they had wanted it ; and he stated that for those who would apply this morning work would be found by. the Government. Some of the men subsequently walked to the front of the " Times" effice; and they there groaned several times. Who induced them to adopt that course the groaners no doubt know ; but we do not believe that one of them could give anything like a reason why such an expression of displeasure was indulged in. Afterwards Mr Grant had another talk in the Octagon to a shifting assemblage of 80 or 100 persons. The talk was eulogistically autobiographical ; it was anecdotal, the anecdotes tending to the glorification of James G-ordon Stuart Grant ; and it was abusive of the Provincial Government and of other local public men. What we have called abusive talk no doubt seemed to be also libellous : j but we should think that there is nobody ! here who believes that anything said by ] Mr G-rant can be calculated to bring any J other person into contempt. Mr Grant did not, however, confine himself to abuse. He imprecated a newspaper and a number of persons. He burned a copy of the "Daily Times" and declared his wish that " the curse of God might rest upon it, and everybody connected with it." Is that the sort of procedure by which Mr G-rant thinks to ingratiate himself with the working-classes '?— Putting Mr Grant aside, we are authorised to state that some time ago instructions were given to the Government. Inspector of Works to employ any man who applied for work ; that only two such applications have been made ; and that, work having been given to those men, they left it after three or four days. We are authorised to add, that the Inspector of Works -will i be ready this forenoon to receive applications for employment; and that work will be found for all who really want it! A passer-by yesterday forenoon', while the men were assembled opposite the the Government buildings, expressed a general opinion that they did not look as if they wanted work. He was challenged by one man of several who were together, with, " Do you mean to say that I don't, want work—that I would not take it if I j could get it?" The reply was to this effect :—" I don't say that you personally are not in want of work. But Ido say; that men who will work can get it up the country. Don't you think yourself as good as a Chinaman? Don't you think, really, that you are as good as any two Chinamen ? Well, Chinamen on the banks of the Molyneux are making from -6s to 8s every day ; and you can make' the same, at the least. I myself have, employed 20 men at £3 12s a week all this winter up country ; and I would have employed, more, at the same rate, if I could have got them. Depend upon it, men who can and will work, need not want it."