LOCAL SELF(ISH) GOVERNMENT.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2985, 9 September 1878, Page 2

LOCAL SELF(ISH) GOVERNMENT.

i (To the Editor of the Evening Star.) : Sib,--I partially realised the meaning of the above on reading your local of the . telegram received <by the Council in Saturday night's Siar, on the employment of the su plus' labor. Why, oar local bodies,should refuse {heir sanction ta the Central Government's proposals to employ the surplus labor when they applied to them, to do so is a greater mystery than . find'ng employment, when men hare' been repeatedly told, they had none to give. It is natural to suppose the Central Government will shirk all the responsi-. ; bility if they can; hence they do not offer the work to the men requiring it, „■ but leave it to the concurrence of the local bodies, with the result that the work , t offered is a ston". I wish harm to none, but as it might give some of our rulers a r.i little knowledge, I should like some of the proposers of thus employing the • sirplus labor to- be forced to take it, and see what they could earn. It is a - cruelty and mockery to ca 1l this employment. Sir, a man that has not accustomed himself to the work, could not earn 10s a '•■ week. It requires praotic9, and I doubt,:. much whether 90 out cf a 100;wbuld earn ' the cost of their, tools the first week, if they have never done it. before. Yet, fancy offering this to men, come,of whbm' ! could earn 10s or 12s per day if they had their employment., .It ,is ,- well known that men have been work* ing on speculatioa becauce/ they could not get employment—•havdVswd to, r put their names down and wait their tarn for work both at the Borough and County. Chambers, and, perhaps, get a week or a fortnight or a month, according to the pressure brought to be:.r; and should a Borough resident apply to the County, the County will inform you that.t 3 Borough must employ; yet if you apply - : to either they will, both give the s»c;o ■ ; answer—no work, and when the Central ; Government offer it, it is refused. It is . quite evident to the dullest comprehension that our local bodies are unable to find employment for the men wanting it. . What the use of a govermenl is that , cannot find work for. men in need of it,; I cannot sea. I always supposed it is „ to be the duty of Government to see that■ every one could have work; certainly, so . far as our Government- is concerned, we might as well be without any in regard tot this. They take deuced good care to look :',.'■ after, themselves. If the Central Govern-. ment leave the responsibility.of charitable . anr>. other institutions, finding labor, on the ' local todies, and spend the revenue ia strengthening centralisation, our local self. •'• government won't keep us, and there will " be more unemployed, which will cause the t"xes to fall all the heavier on the '' emp^yed; so it is to b n wished, if our local bodies can't find some better employment 1 thrn stone napping, they will v take the 'offer of the Government; arid/ not stand in their own light and the unemployed.—l am, &c, PUBLICO.

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