DISABILITIES OF THE BACKBLOCKS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 19 April 1907, Page 2

DISABILITIES OF THE BACKBLOCKS.

A NEW ASPECT. Writes our Stratford correspondent:--To-day the, general topic of conversation has been the Ohura road question. So much real mutter for discussion and consideration was brought up at Tuesday's meeting that the public realise that the continual cry for help from the settlors and workers in the East has not been a cry of "Wolf!" And even with all the matter dealt with there was one very important aspect of the case that was not dealt with and that was "labor 1 ' part. Only those who have to labor in the back settlement' realise what the labor problem means. With one or two exceptions those who go into the back go with only labor as their capital. They have to carve out their homes in the bush, and at the same lime get sullieient to keep body and soul together, and often in the struggle they sink, yet the sinking of some does not deter others in the making of the Empire. Tile men and women who go hack arc the Nation-makers—heroes ihe lirM magnitude. Just let anyone

consider the eondHbrns under which the poorest dwellers of (he town live, and the townspeople have the preference iu spite of their poorness. Every institution for the alleviation o/ human sullcring the townsman has. Every educational •ympathy. Help is always at luiud. if a townsman works practically two days ii week (for the present) he is better paid that Ihe backwoodsman who work* a!! the week. This i.my wm a strange statement, but it is nevertheless true. At the present time vaen the road is had carriage means an item of CS per con from Stratford to SVhaiigamoinona, a distance of 42 milt*. That has to be ; added on to the necessities of life. If a settler has any produce to dispose of that C 8 has to be adiun on again. Again, heavy losses of cattle mean a severe tax upon the settler, and on top of it all he has to pay for what lie has not got, and that is a road, .Mr McCutchan introduced many interesting figures at the meeting on Tuesday, but I am sure if he had dealt yith the poor man's capital, that is his labor, as he did with the many other drawbacks, such as medical assistance, educational facilities, and so forth, ; T fancy ihat the amtience would have | been startled. The ;<amc rat" of wago pertains in Whangamomona a- iu Stratford, viz., one shilling per hour, but when wu consider that everything the settler eat- 4 , drinks, wears and use.-, is one hundred per cent dearer, thai climatic con-

ditions are much severer, it will be seen I hat the wage-earning power is very mueli limited, and to Lop tlu» lot these settlors are loaded with a roading fee and from which 'there is no escape. As nn instance of how it works onl I may mention that a settler thought of building and the quotations he j;o| from isawmill was 2'2s (id per lOOffc of seconders timber, which in ilie open could he ■got for 10s. All this is a tax upon a man's labor, where labor is plentiful and capital scarce. It makes life hardly worth (lie living, and if Tuesday's Hireling has 110 eU'eet upon the Ministerial propositon. then it's a bad look-out for out back settlers, who are really offering up their lives martyrs for the future of the colony.