Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATE THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1898. DECLINE IN ENGLISH TRADE

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2088, 24 March 1898, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATE THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1898. DECLINE IN ENGLISH TRADE

In what numerous branches of b.usi- ! ness has it not long been England’s boast that she reigned alone 1 Yet ' we, who are her children, even we, can no longer blind ourselves to the ; knowledge that the mother country’s supremacy in trade, which, for a century and more, has floated like the stately fabric of an iceberg on th 9 seas of commerce under the fierce sun of foreign competition, is melting, nay | more, is threatened with dissolution!, e’er auother century is passed. W e 'speak of the blessings of peace; bat • we question whether the hardship and suffering involved in a modern war are not outdone by the merciless intensity with which the industrial war is being carried on, day by day, in Europe and America. And the- cause ,of it all. Asa people of English stock we were inclined, to believe that so long as England held the markets of ' the world in her lap to pick and choose ; from tlw world went very well. But 1 is that the whole question ? Can we not look at it on broader grounds ? There yet lingers in us, as a people, much of mediaeval insolence of the beliefs that very naturally cling to a nation, ' like the English, so long foremost in Europe in war and council chamber. As a people, when driven to extremities, we are inclined to be harsh and brutal. We have stood by while the pauper labour of the country has ground out its miserable life in fl »e noisome dens of the ‘sweaters/ ,vo ourselvers have thought while reading some of Mr Frank Bird’s papers on the child-workers of London, that a ;nation professing.to lead Christianity earn*-. e uivvo at the commission of such oarbariues as Mr Hird’s investigations reveal—and the existence of which are perfectly well known to the authorities—-without sufferin -, both directly and indirectly in consequence. It is not pauper labour and long hours that threaten us. ‘-Nothing,’ to quote an authority, ‘ stands out more clearly than the fact that our pre-eminence is threatened most seriously by workmen who- are earning higher -wages than are paid in British workshops.’ Now, our readers, will be asking what is the cause of the superior intelligence of the American and German workman that enables them to turn out a better and cheaper article than that coining from British workshops ? -Last year the Manchester City Council appointed a deputation composed of the members of the Technical Instruction Committee to visit the institutions and schools on thecontinent mainly devoted to scientific and artistic instruction as applied “to industrial and commeixial pursuits. It is the lack of technical education that is causing us to lose ground in the markets of the world. The verdict of all who enquire into the subject is conclusive. We cannot refrain from quoting a paragraph from an article in Blackwood’s magazine, on the Manchester deputation’s report in conjunction with another report on Technical education: ‘ The two reports vie with each other in extolling the thoroughness of technical education, not in Germany alone, but in other continental countries. They state that England has not only been outstripped, but is practically ‘nowhere’ in the race for skilled training. Alderman Hoy declares that the future of the manufacturing industry depends en tirely on the Highest octontifle skill, which is the possession of the trained -artisans of Germany. ‘ They were told,’ said Alderman Higginbottom, ♦ that England was the home of engineering, but he had to say it. was nothing (f the kind. . . In technical details the German and Italian workmen were far ahead of English workmen, and their cleanliness-in their workshops and stations was wonderful.’ Mr John- Pythian had gone abroad, strong in the conviction that the ‘working man of England was unapproachable in the making of the best engines and the best dynamos in the world,’ but he had come back with an altered view.’