THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1901. SOCIAL LEGISLATION.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 184, 3 August 1901, Page 2

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1901. SOCIAL LEGISLATION.

UNDER the above heading we have this issue endeavoured to give an outline of several measures which are likely to become law at an early date, or have already passed into operation. We take it that a great deal of ignorance exists as to the laws under which the country is ordinarily governed, but especially* is this true at the present time, when measures, each more radical than its predecessor, spring into being v*ith . mushroom like rapidity. The Government seems to have become possessed with a socialistic mania, and, in the opinion of the leading men e£, the colony, their measures will ere long precipitate an industrial panic. Urged on.by the knowledge that the Labour Unions possess a wealth of organised voting power, the unopposed /Government is pushing through laws that are unnecessarily harassing/ .to of labour. We are "%lad' to see that at last th« community is beginning t© see the evils which are likely to result from all this ultrasocialistic legislation. In the

North Island the Farmers' tJniafc is going ahead by leaps an,d bounds, the total membership now being 'considerably pvet a« 10,000, Wellington Province alone "having 35 branches. In this island too, the same thing is going on apace. Farmers' 'TJyions are « . either already in existence or are being formed in Christchurch, Dunedin, Pleasant Point, Geraldine, Hilderthorpe, Taieri, Gore, Drnmmond, and other centres'. • In our own midst the far-seeing among the settlers have started a Waimate County Farmers' Association, and it behoves every farmer who does not want to be legislated out of house and home to join and lend his influence to check the wild legislation which is every day being made law. We would suggest that in addiction an Employers' Union should be formed in the town to watch the legislation which affects tradesmen and employers of labour generally. There are many measures brought forward which affect trades and farmers equally, and with regard to such the Employers' Union could join hands with the Farmers' Association. We would also speak a word of warning'to the workingmen, who now appear to be bene=firing. iWe do not believe they have yet realised that the trend of present legislation is not only tn increase the cost of the common nncessaries of life, but to kill enterprise and industry of all kinds. Already a tannery has been closed down in Dunedirk, and three sawmills have had to do the same in Southland, while it is now found cheaper to send kauri to Sydney, have it made there into doors and frames, and, to bring it back to New Zealand,, paying freight both ways and duty as well, than to have it made i up in Auckland. These are the forerunners of the storm, for the '' result must be that a large nunr- " ber of workmen who had good 1 employment have been thrown > out of work, and are entering ' into competition with those still employed. It is quite time the Labour Unions throughout the

colony joined hands with the various employers' associate is to stop the legislation which is bringing each a state of things to pass. Should the steps we have suggested not be promptly taken-, all foreign capital will be withdrawn, local capital will be transferred elsewhere, and the workers will discover too late that they of rather their representatives in Parliament have killed the goose which laid the golden egg. From time to time we shall return to this subject, but enough has been said to furnish food for thought to all who have the ultimate good of the colony at heart.