The Tuapeka Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 4,1870.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 130, 4 August 1870, Page 4

The Tuapeka Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1870.

" Measures, not Men." Public spirit, where art thou to be found ? Certainly not in Tuapeka, and, we fear, not in Otago. It is woeful to think of it. Every solitary individual is too much engrossed in Iris own petty sphere of existence, that he completely forgets there is an outside world which has claims upon his attention. What do we live for in Tuapeka? Is it to amass wealth ? That may be the object; but we can answer with all confidence, there be very few that find it. And one reason why more of us don't find it, is because we are too selfish — too indifferent to the great questions which, as a people, we should be discussing for the general welfare of the country. Tuapeka is now in a depressed state, but not more so than other parts of the province. The whole country is languishing for want of public spirit. It matters not what the question may be that calls for public sympathy and agitation in this locality — a municipal election, or the election of wardens for the management of the commonage — all alike receive the cold shoulder from the very people most interested. From this very cause, we suppose, the cattle owners of Tuapeka have allowed the small power they have possessed for two years over the commonage to slip from their grasp, instead of bestiring themselves, as they should have done, to get the full management of the district in their own hands, and a portion of the assessment set apart for local purposes. The Board of Wardens is a thing of the past. Unless some steps are taken, and that right early, the settlers will find sheep infesting their cattle on every hill, and the miserable price now obtained for their comparatively fat stock reduced to a still more miserable pittance. All we can say to the settlers and stockowners is this, it serves them right. They get all they can expect. The shoe will very soon pinch them, and we shall hear a general growl against the Government. Rather, we "should say, let them growl against themselves.

The Report of the Select Committee on the petition of the unemployed has been published, together with the evidence upon which the report is ba&.ed. The report is 'an interesting one, but the overwhelming evidence against the petitioners is its principal feature. Of the fifty or sixty persons examined, only three or four endorsed the views of the petitioners. In another column will be found the evidence obtained from the Tuapeka district. That evidence is quite in unison with the replies to the questions received by the Select Committee from employers of labour in other districts of the province. . The general complaint all over Otago by the employers of labour is, that wages, as a rule, are excessive— that labour would be more largely taken advantage of by merchants, tradesmen, and farmers if it could be obtained at a lower figure, and that many industries could bo made profitable which at the present rate of wages it would be folly to initiate. In large towns of the old country, no less than of the colonies, a conr siderable number of unemployed will be found at certain seasons of the year, although the truth of the remark has more application to the colonies, and especially to the various emporiums of immigration in the colonies. The reason of this, so far as New Zealand is concerned is not for to seek. The country is but thinly inhabited, communication is tediops, antl the requirements of the. outlying districts are comparatively unknown. There is a decided want of organization in the labour market of the country. The evidence of Mr. Douglas, merchant and runholder, Dunedin, points directly to this want. That gentleman says :—": — " I have repeatedly seen, in travelling, numberaof

persons travelling one way seeking employment, and numbers travelling in the opposite direction, also seeking employment, and on making enquiries, neither of them had any fixed destination in view or any definite information as to where their services were required, while at the same time I knew that labor was very badly wanted at particular localities, where some of those travellers had just left." That, in. our opinion, strikes at the root of the matter. A want of information — a want of system or organization — is the great drawback in this country, and we heartily endorse the recommendation of the Committee that a labour agency in Dunedin, with branch offices in the country towns, would be attended with numerous advantages, not only to the unemployed in Dunedin, but in every district of Otago. A steady influx of population to a young country like this, must of necessity contribute to its wealth ; but if no preparation is made for the reception of labouring immigrants, we may always expect to hear of many cases of temporary embarrassment amongst that class. The law of supply and demand will doubtless regulate our requirements, but if the supply be forced by our Government landing shoals of immigrants on the Dunedin jetty without a shilling in their pocket or *i friend to assist them, starvation and misery must be the consequence.