The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1889. THE UNEMPLOYED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1877, 11 April 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1889. THE UNEMPLOYED.

Unemployed crying out for work in the middle of the harvest season, as one might call it—and not loafers either, but hard-working, respectable men, willing to work at 5s or 6s per day ! This is the case in Timaru at the present time. A deputation of 19 men waited on the Timaru Borough Council a short time ago, but a good many of them lived in the Levels Road Board district. They were referred to that body, and there they said that some of them had travelled round everywhere and could not get employment. Some of them were stone masons,bricklayers, and builders, and there was nothing doing at their own trades. Mr Turnbull had advised them to go to the Board, and if they got nothing to do to demand food from the Charitable Aid Board—and this they intended to do. Mr Ehodes asked them what they were ready to do, and what wages did they want. The reply was that they were readyto do anything for 5s or 6s per day. Now, surely this is not too much. Hitherto the cry has been that men could easily get work if they would take reasonable wages, but here are men willing to take it and cannot get it. That they were not lazy loafers either was proved by one of the members of the board, who said they were all hard-working, industrious men. The fact of the matter is, there is no work in the country, and it is not possible for all the men to find employment. Men are quite ready now—except perhaps in the harvest or shearing season —to work for 5s or 6s per day, and certainly that is little enough; but they cannot get the work to do even at that price, and the consequence is that,many of them are starving. We know how ready self-satisfied, well-fed people are to pooh-pooh all this, and tell us it is their own fault, and all that/ This is how Sir Harry Atkinson used to talk of them. To him they were lamp-post loafers, who would not go out into the country to settle if they were paid for it ; but Mr Ballance took hundreds upon hundreds of these same people, and planted them in village settlements—and there they are still, thriving, prosperous people. That is the way to remedy the unemployed evil. There is no other way, but that is exactly what will not be done. The present Government destroyed the village settlement system, and consequently working men have no chance now of doing anything for themselves. There are men to be found who will not hesitate to say that the working men of the present day have as good an opportunity of getting on in the world as the working men in the past. This is pure nonsense. The proof of its inaccuracy will be found in the fact that no working man is doing much good for himself now, whilst almost all our settlers have made their money by their own individual efforts in days gone by. Has the race degenerated ? Are not there as good working men now as ever there were ? and why are they not doing good for them-! selves ? Simply ' because the roadß and bridges and fences and railways have been made, and there are none to make now, It is very sad to see poor, unfortunate men swagging it from end to end of the land, begging . for work and no one to give it to them—and this in the middle of a most plentiful harvest! RAILWAY TJME.TABLE. In another column will be found the proposed alterations in the railway time-table, for which we are indebted to the Lyttelton Times. We cannot believe that it is correct; we' cannot believe that three lunatics let loose out of Sunnyside could be mad enough |to make such proposals. Still we would urge upon the local Town Boards to make an immediate inquiry, and ascertain the exact truth from headquarters before it is too late to enter a protest and resist such a monstrous change, Practically people living between Ashburton and Timaru will have no train service at all. If the . proposed programme is adhered to, there is nothing for it but to reestablish Cobb and Co.'s coach between here and Timaru. So far as we can see, under the proposed arrangement, a person could only go to Timaru by a train which reaches thereat 2.30p.m., except on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, when it will be possible to reach there at 8 o'clock m the evening. The awkward point is that there will be no opportunity for coming

back on the same day, as there will be no return train from Timaru. We again call upon upon those in authority to make immediate inquiries into the matter.