THE UNEMPLOYED AND IMMIGRATION.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 37, 16 February 1884, Page 8

THE UNEMPLOYED AND IMMIGRATION.

Ak article in the " New Zealand Industrial Gazette" lor January, respecting the outcry of the unemployed uo.vn South, fully sustains onr views on this subject, as set forth ill our leading article of the sth ult. It is as follows : — The depression lately existing in some parts of the ■South Island of this colony has, of course, been followed by the old cry of the unemployed. Meetings have been held in Christchurch and Dunediu, and -organisations have formed by those " out of| employment and in distressed circumstances." Deputies from these ■organisations have interviewed ministers, representing the desirability of staying the tide of immigration, and urging the ■wisdom, and even necessity, of providing employment by means of railway extension ; -at the same time being very precise as to where the railways should be promoted. The particulars to hand respecting the agitators, though meagre, •are sufficient to prove their lack of genuineness, and to most amply justify the consideration and responses given to their appeals. At Christchurch 307 signed the petition for employment, stating that they were destitute. Of this number, seventy-eight have been in New Zealand at least twenty years ; ninety-five from ten to twenty, and ninety from five to ten years, while of the hundreds of immigrants that have poured into Canterbury during the last five years only forty-four rank among the unemployed, iuy-i' lacts c.my on the f>icc of thnjn a gen li ie it>L:in>,}i.i! to the capabilities of our colony to fin i employment tor a'l w .o eouu* eur.ie-ity in search of it. But what ate the results of these representations to the Government? JLh.l tlu H.jii. Air ltolksron iiyree with hi-, interview or-, t.i:it, bec.uw J>o7 iiien were out of employment in Oijri.Ntdiureh, imi inanition to this colon\ should be stayed ? No ! He toll! them lie held no such opinion, airl ti'ste I the ■foiuceuty of tlieir cry for work by offering it to all and sundry at a reinuneiviiion of 4s Od per daji, or £\ 7> per week ; but a large. maj'»rit»y s.ume-d themselves in their true colours by lefusing the offer. It is pretty c'o.ir that a pounl a Avee-iC from a beuevoK'iit institute and sundry "scores'" witu confiding tr<i<l.'b111 i n would be more on^eniai to must of them tiian hard work i\i, 4& G.I a day. "When it was seen tuat the altitude of tne Government in 1-1 ie matter of railway extension was determine I the agitation nied away as suddenly as it had arisen, tie last bean] of it beinj*" to the effect that t!i<- committee had resigned, te'ling tne ni'Mi to accept or reject the 4s (id a day us each miuht fleet for himself.Uut how will t .ese ntnionri of rcuvily <A employment itfi'ect mien (ing emigrants at Home? It is not to be expected t nit anything u ill Ikj lost in the transit ; it is much moie likely the circumstances will be seriously exa^guiated. It is jjnjbable that the effects will be damaging to feume extent ; not that tney s.iould be so. Working people at Home who may be conbi'lcruji? their chances of success in New Zealand should be cno.^uiageii rather than jilarmed by these disclo.-ures. Their line of argument si:ould be this, — " If on y forty-five of all the immigrants for the last five years are out of eiiiployin^n', and the majority of tiie forty- five in u position to refuse, twenty-seven shillings a week, New Zealand must be a very piradise for >vor.viug men." And so it »s. W here is the G(»vei'nment in the Old World which <isire oiler 4s G« i a. day indiscriminutely lo all who care to accept it? Tiio 'lifferenee in the value of that wage in the Old World anil Ihe New has been unwarrantably ex incline*., very much 1 to tiie dutiiJiiJiit of lvii ooioniea. T<m

alleged lie of cnsj.loyni if if really exiMiny .it all. v* i.ot oi* / temporary, hut'l'util. Jn this H ud quite ihe reverse is the case. Contractors in and around Wellington have difficulty in securing workmen, while agriculture in Napior is being neglected from thesani v cause. But, while wo set up consfca it employment at high rate of wages as i::i nttractiou for labour, we hold Unit capital nt'Oil not. take alarm, for there is no lack of opportunity for the latter to profitably employ the former, oven at the high rates in ling in comparison with [Lome wages, piovided the capitalist possesses ;i thorough knowledge of the business or trade into which ho puts his money, -and the, enterprise, to secure the i^iM.uiee of all the Inbonr-saving appliances which the present inventive age lias made availahle.