The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, FEBEUABY 3, 1880.

Temuka Leader, Issue 231, 3 February 1880, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, FEBEUABY 3, 1880.

The mimher of swaggers who are ostensibly seeking employment in this district is something unprecedented. They may be seen trudging laboriously along roads that head in all directions, some going out of town, others flocking into it; and eventually when tired they seek the shade and repose afforded by inviting public-houses and charitable verandahs. All this has continued for weeks, and cannot be attributed to the mere change of the current of libour from the stations to the farms, come-p ent on sheading giving place to harvest. There is no indication whatever of their being in a transition state. They have set up their 'e*, it■ would appear, and have determined for the future not to be plowghun>p. or gardeners, or grooms, or in fact laborers of a’ J kind .-but to remain swaggers. ■ When riding alone a few miles of road we 1j.0v,-: counted from fifteen <o .twenty, and we Jr;.,,,w nf riii’-i'i whlM'i.) four Or live call .'led;,' Cor -ior!u tf M ?, g‘o ear. , the.’.' hms have 'i v rysr- ions ml i-.i-v' m ' in- tur-!<•«!, .of f;i-e rv-u- i-y.a im.g and ih-v-oi' ha- luthe-to a-" AH -movv;

Weveuiciubcr when laborers were :>y j-wut-1 a' Im. vest that fa: moi s Lad the ;i\-iitesfc dillcul; \ in jotting their crops secure ’ at anything ike ti; ■ j :gh; time. Fields wvr ■ cut, uudoi-vipe and o\vr-npe, to admit of Ihe sumo gang of men harvesting ii all, for no other* cauM be got. ’i Ids is reversed now, and this your there would ho no difficulty in gelling a couple of score of men at an hour’s notice. The fact that uiei: came; o: 1 ain employment si all at thL se,uon of the year is full of grave si nifi canoe. I'. is bad enough to have to support the unemployed at present, but what -will it be after ha. vest? In a district like South Canterbury, where the farming ;industry bears a Urge p;uportion to all other industries, general relaxation in the demand for farm laborers is : i cavil » full. After harvest other industries will not : equire any great and sudden addition to the Wit o e-t-arising c’ass. and fanners certainly will waul fewer men. A further supply of m n to (lie already glutted labor market will result, ami the unemployed will a ain nd-e their voice, ami be loud in indignation. it is just possible that, this part of New Zeaium. is worse off than the av ruee in the matter of the unempL.yed ; am. in that ease the eouq.»arativoly easy com. lu.ication by vail which we enjoy will in fiui • disperse the evil. The prospect of getting harvesting or sheaiing 1 • no doubt afctiacied men from long dist ce,- to this district. Our agricultural and >. Loral capabilities are well known, and many vo come here assured of getting work. Bat .lh ail the extent of cui.nation tout i» here,

ere meahealy more than snoaga hands to ap our liarves*, and gather it ;n. Laboraviog niachineiy is becoming widely used, and Lai ves’s are already requiring Lss and less manual labour.

Any one reflecting on this state of the deman.; and supply of labour would at once tronciuao that wages wil l fall. Strangely enough they are not yet falling appreciably. Owing no tiouot, in the fiist ias'ance, to tiie heavy crops, tying is dearer than it has been for many years. But why don't the hungry, begging, work-seeking unemployed bid lower than the present harvesters? If tying and stocking is being done fur twelve shillings, why don’t they offer to do it for len ? If it is being done for ten shillings, why not bid eight ? If tiiey made such an offer, we have no hesitation in saying they would get work ; and they would make a good thing out of it, too, auu find it vastly better than carrying their swags from place to place, begging their way as they go. Wages are not so low that anyone need choose to beg or starve, rather than submit to still lower wages. With steady work ai.d fine weather a harvester can make £5 a-week at pr-es'-ut rates. Now, is that remuneration so veiy low that it cannot be reduced ? Would not half the amount be very good even for harvest wages ? For what is it that makes the rate of wages higher at harvest than at any other time ? It is not because the work is extra hard or exhausting, or because fanners in the fulness of their hearts are inspired with unwonted liberality, or because harvest comes only once a-yt-ar. The reason is simply and solely because harvest comes pretty nearly all at onoe —everyone wants laborers at the same time; every reaper and tyei is picked up ; the demand is great compared with the supply, and if you are to have men you must pay for them. Now,this year,the very reason which makes harvest wages high is awanliug. Labourers are not scarce, but in excess. Can they therefore grumble if wages fall ? It is a necessity of their case, if tiiey want work they must prepare to accept lower—but, for all that, renumei ative—wages 5 they must in effect bid lower than those who are at present employed. But our worthy unemployed (vlhose spirits are much more independent than their stomachs) won’t work for less wages. If their cheques are not yet finished they won’t work at any figure, and if their funds are exhausted, why they’ll then take work at the highest rate. Sydney Smith —or somebody else with his sense of the humorous and the true —once , aid —“No man wants work ; he wants wages.” Our unemployed go further; they want not only wages, but the best article going in that line. If you won’t accede to t! e terms they ark, why, they’ll take a feed, and they hi put in the night with you, and tiiey’ll move <‘n next morning after breakfast. They don’t live, as the proverb has it, “ From hand to mouth ” so much as “ from your house to the next.” What we would advise men, who are out of work to do, thereforS, is this—Let them go in conveniently - sized gangs, and offer plainly to work at .such a wage as will pay the farmer to employ them. They will get loss for their work, but by a littie seif-oenial in the way of drink, they can be much richer at the end of the year than they are now. The time ’oh, in seeking work is more in the long run than tiie difference in wages. The present custom, too, of men drii. king what they earn, is not only preventing our working class from acquiring a competency for old age, but it is actually bringing on old age the quicker, if the improvident workman only would east up in his mind the debit and the credit of the results that follow ins action he would hesitate to commit himseif So unreservedly to the publicans. He loses his past earnings, his present time, and —heaviest item of ail—his future heall h and capacity for work. Of course argument is pretty much wasted on the subject of these reraa k*, but the State las an effective way of arguing by sucti expedients as Local Option Bills. New Zealand has no Poor Ratc-s rs yet, except such as are devoted to. eftablishing* Lunatic Asylums, and other charuauL* insutu. ions of that kind ; but if the labor question is not judiciously treated by the Government, we will have paupers and 1 oor-houses before long. It Is aU very well for Government to send detachments of unemployed to form a railway or build a bridge or two, but that cannot continue long. We view with suspicion all attempts of the State to provide for those who won’t provide for themselves.- It becomes a necessary evil a t times, anil such a time, it seems, will follow harvest. There will bo a crowd of men seek ing work, and it will be expedient, no douht, for Gove’-nmeut to give them it; but unless wo are to have a five million loan every year this cannot go on continually. Our advice, finally, to the swaggers and unera] loyed if to work wherever they can get a remunerative wages even though it it is a trifle below current rates ; to save what they earn, and, if they can sre their way to it, to club togetheyand invest their savings in some fund, rn I lastly net to trust too much to the State providing them with work and wages. The’" present life of “ swagging it ” is neither comfortable nor remunerative. People don’t object to give a man a feed or a lift if he is honestly in distress,but the professional loafer is ro thorougly well-known that suspicion falls on the unemployed as a class. It is in the power of many,we think, by acceeding to lower terms than they now asic, to prove that they are not loafers, but are really seeking for work as they profess.