JUDGE GRESSON ON THE LABORING CLASS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 298, 16 October 1873, Page 6

JUDGE GRESSON ON THE LABORING CLASS.

The Rowing is the full text of Mr Justice Gresson in reference to the above subject, made in tb.e course of his address to the Canterbury Grand Jury :—: — It is deplorable that so many f prods shpuld have been pomwifcted at such a time, when there is such a scarcity of Jabor that all who are able and willing to work may find employment at highly remunerative wages. I am persuaded that so long as the present demand for labor continues (and 1 have no reason to doubt its continuance), an agricultural laborer of sober and provident habits may, in a few years, become a small farmer —the owner of a freehold acquired by his

own savings, with more of independence and of the comforts of life aboui him, and greater facilities for educating his family, than he could have acquired in any part of the United Kingdom by a long life of unremitting toil and privation. I must admit that the 1 c is another side of the picture too often witnessed, in this Colony, for which however the individual himself and not the Colony is i esponsible. It very often happens that the laborer and mechanic, finding that they can earn here much more than enough to support their daily wants, either work only half time or spend their earning.* in the public house, thus wasting their substance, l'ljuring their health, and leaving their families in a much worse position than if they were receiving the whole of their earnings at lower wa^es. I think that the forgeries and embezzlements which have become frequent in this and other districts, are mainly attributable to this spirit of self-indulgence and extravagance which are caused by the abuse of high wages. Not that I desire to see the standard reduced below the highest rate that farmers and other employers can afford to pay. What I -do earnestly desire, in cmmon with those who have at heart the best interests of the Colony, and of the workingmen, whose interests are identified with it, is, that they would avail themselves of the opportunities which thia country undoubtedly affords, of realising an independence by steady industry and frugality, and of educating their childten in such a manner as to fit them for the honorable position to which they may reasonably hope to attain in this most promising Colony.