The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1886. THE UNEMPLOYED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 154, 14 August 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1886. THE UNEMPLOYED.

Thb House ot Representatives made a great exhibition of sympathy with human suffering last Tuesday evening. The members showed an extraordinary amount of interest in the well-being of the unemployed, but ns usual they did nothing but talk over it. What they did was certainly a well conceived bit of br-plny, calculated to catch the unwary. This Parliament is drawing to a close ; nest year we shall have a general election, when our representatives will again have to woo the sweet voices of the electors, and hence the great interest exhibited in the unemployed question. What arrant humbugs they are all. Three years ago the cry of the unemployed'was as loud as at present, and the number out of employment (hen was as large as now, yet never since has Parliament attempted to do anything to mitigate the evil. It has in fact intensified it ; it has sanctioned the expenditure ot large sums of money on bringing immigrant* into the colony ; also on paying lecturers and agents in Great Britain and Ireland to delude poor, unfortunate people to come to swell the ranks of the unemployed. From the Ist of June, 1885, to the 30th of April, 1886—that is, 11 months —there came into this colony under the assisted or nominated system 545 immigrants, at a total cost of £6844 10s. [Of this sura the immigrants and their friends paid £2331 10s, and the Government paid £4513. Thus during these 12 months, notwithstanding that the Estimates were reduced by) half-a-raiilion, and that our streets swarmed with able-bodied men who, owing to want of employment, were admittedly on the verge of starvation, the Government spent £4SIS on bringiug immigrants into the colony, independent of what was paid to the leci turers and agents at Home. The Government here in the colony were paying away money—who knows how much —for doing work of an unproductive and unnecessary nature so as to provide means of employing starving mm, and at the same time was paying away money for bringing more men into the colony. A more extraordinary proceeding it would be difficult to think of. It rends more like the bits of burlesque introduced by Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan into their, operas than anything else. It is waste of mon-y right and left, and worse : it is paying money away for promoting pauperism, yet not one of our members has entered a protest against it. How they argue is this : they say that if we increase the population we lessen the burden of the public debt per head. A more groundless, fallacious, nonsensical argument was never heard of. I'o put it to the lest in a practical way lot us suppose that ten men own a farm, and they owe on it £lO per head. Two of them cannot find anything to do on the farm, and they must be. supported by the other eight men. Now, supposing these ten men said, “ We owe too much per head on this farm ; it is too large for us ; let us g«t a few more men on it, and reduce our debt per head,” And supposing they carried out this, and got two more men, what would be the result? Simply that they would have to support four idle men instead of two. Bow this is exactly analagous to 111* position of the colony, the only difference being the question of siz\ It is absolute nonsense to say that to increase population is beneficial, unless reproductive labor is provided. It is not a question of population, but of how we are employed. That our population inot reproductively employed is proved by the fact that 15 years ago we were exporting nearly £2O per head, whereas we are exporting only about £lO per head now. The statistics show that as fast as we have increased our population so have we decreased our exports per head, and this proves that we are not 4

■■in; hiving oi-rsulv-'fiS reproductive!!’, him) iuoicaoeil population is «s«l«hs. Iho fact is, Iherei is only mm euro for tim unemployed, ami that is to settle as many as possible of them on the land, riiron years ago wo submitted to the Government a scheme for settling working man mi Iho land. It was that out of every 800 acres of agricultural land ihere should be taken plots of about six acres, and perpetual leases of them given to agricultural laborers. This was taken up by Hir Julius Vogel, and a clause (ogive effect to it inserted in the [jocal Bodies Powers and Finance. Bill, but it found no supporters in the House, and it has not been heard of since. If oil the money that has been wasted on immigration, relief works, etc,, had been employed in buying out such plots as wo have suggested, 500 men might have been settled now in comfortable homes. Another thing the Government cc-uhi do is to employ (bo unemployed in clearing, fencing, and preparing Crown lands for settlement. This would be a reproductive work, calculated to extend settlement, but instead of this they have spent the money in beautifying parks, planting trees, breaking stones, and other works that will never be of the slightest use. As regards village settlement, which appears to he the highest ideal yet formed by our legislators of providing homes for the people, it is defective, inasmuch' 4 as that working men are congregated together in one spot, necessitating absence from home to get employment. The proper way is to distribute working men broadcast over the face of the country, so that they will always be within easy reach of work. This is the true solution of the difficulty, but we must wait until-we get a race of legislators Jess stupid and more honest than •the, present one. This is their third session now, and it was only last Tuesday they ever thought of the unemployed, and they would not have thought of it now only that they know the unemployed have votes.