THE UNEMPLOYED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 414, 15 March 1880, Page 2

THE UNEMPLOYED.

[To the Editor Waibakapa Daily.] Sik,—l notice that every New Zealand paper is making a harvest 'reporting unemployed meetings. Men six months out of work. Families in utter distress. Deputations to all manner of men in power. Crying out for relief, or we will starve. Some one is to blame for. this sort of thing, and I think.it is Sir George Grey and the late Government, This being the case, Sir George should charter half n-dozen good steamers, and send theso unemployed somewhere else at his own expense. In place of this we hardworking people are taxed, 'to keep these unfortunates, who never should have been allowed to come to New Zealand without a penny in their pockets, Would it not have been better for the late Government to have offered the Crown Lands of the Island to English farmers for little or nothing an acre! These men would, of themselves, bring out suitable workmen to open up the country, and occupy it with profit to themselves, and New Zealand generally. In place of this, hosts of idle men, quite unsuitable, have to be kept at our expense. More is spent in this way than the Crown Lands will ever fetch. Will it not, then, be cheaper to tell the land for almost nothing and secure an indirect return!

I think of the useless army we are keeping up on the Waimate Plains for no earthly use; simply eating our bread and butter. If the Government tried my experiment, and gave the land to any farmer who would guarantee to employ three men each, for Bix months, then tlie unemployed would be all absorbed, and the Government relieved from any further trouble from them. In place of this, a lotof people are being nursed like children. In twelve months' time., the Waimate Plains would be dotted with farmers' houses, with plenty of work for thousands to do, most of which are eating up the revenue, which should go to improving our roads, and other useful purposes. The Armed Constabulary would then be seen with a plough in his hand, instead of a gun, for a'shot will never be tired on the Waimate Plains It is only retired officers and others, wishing to keep under pay as long as they can, who pitch all kinds of military threats to the that bo, causing the extensive standing army to bo amusing themselves camping on the Plains, and shifting about for a a chango of

I know Messrs Hall and Rolleston to be practical men of business; then why do they not invent some original idea of relieving the unemployed 1 It Beems to me that when men get into power they get into a fog at the same time. Depend upon it we will not have a halfpenny left of this new loan in twelve months, and innocent people will wonder where it has all gone to. The Treasury will be so empty that members of Parliament will be seen in Wellington during the session with their elbows out of their sleeves, going into a ninepenny feed on the quiet, and Parliament will meet in solemn silence to hear the verdict of the Colonial Treasurer—that the money is all fooled away—while the members sit as terrorstricken as a congregation of Wesleyans listening to the awful threats of a local preacher. This will be the future state of New Zealand, if the foolish extravagance is carried on much longer. Fancy the Government cutting down a few paltry £2OO a year, and forgetting the thousands of pounds that are being wasted, nearly £2,000 a week on the Waimate Plains alone. I feel confident that if liberal land laws, such as I have proposed, became law, New Zealand would, in twelve months, be a far better country for rich and poor, and in another couple of years tho lenders would be offering us- any quantity of money at about 3 per cent/ In place of that' we will have to pay 6| per cent for our next loan, and perhaps not get it at that, Even the Railways of this island will be a losing game, if more of tho agricultural land is not occupied by independent farmers, What is the use of pushing railways through a wilderness if the land is not exporting grain, ,wool, and tallow, which is all advancing in price 'I The land should be made to pay the interest and sinking fund on the line running through it. ' "

In concluding I may give you an instance , of haw tho settlement of the country is kept back, by taking Featheraton and its neighborhood as an example, Here we have numbers, whom I know personally, with big balances in the banks, waiting for a chance of acquiring land. These men are working here for 6s or 8s per day, while they are able to. employ men to work for them if they could only get a slice of the Waimate Plains, or some other good land, to Battle on/ ; Yours, &c., W. MoKeever. [There will, in the course of a day or tivo, be full work for all unemployed in this district, and in a few weeks plenty of land open in. the Wairarapa for sale on deferred payments. The Government at the present time are doing all that can be done to provide both work and land,—Ed. W.D.]