The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, APRIL 24, 1882. THE LABOR MARKET.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1056, 24 April 1882, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, APRIL 24, 1882. THE LABOR MARKET.

Harvesting/, and shearing. operations are over long- ago,, the busy season of the year. Las past, yet throughout this district'there'is an outcry for more laboiv Country settlers have money to spend on improvements which they are anxigijs to make, and 'which are essential to the 1 progress and prosperity of the district/ but they cannot obtain labor.. To a certain.extent farmers in this colony have been brought into duwt communication with .the English produce market, and it 'is high time that they -were brought into equally, direct communication with the English labor market, so that they might secure more readily than they now can the horny-banded rustics now slaving at home from daylight to dark for twelve shillings a week, drudging for; hard task-masters, at a miserable dole ot twopence per hour, out of which they must feed and clothe wife and children, and pay rent and taxes. We believe that the arrangement of a suitable labor supply for this colony could be' much more economically effected by private enterprise than by a Government' bureau.' The'experiments already made by former Ministries for bringing out immigrants to New Zealand were so very unsuccessful that we would gladly see the further introduction of labor taken out of the hands of the legislature. We do, not .require another State enterprise launched to supply us with Italian organ-grinders, street loafers and swell mobsmen, the colony having already been fairly stocked with men of this calibre. Two things the Government and Parliament .may do to facilitate the introduction of suitable labor by private, enterprise and that is, first to subsidise direct steam communication with England, and secondly to stipulate that immigrants.shall be carried by any

subsidised line at tlio lowest remunerative wtes. If.laborers could be transported like .meat—if they could be refrigerated in London and thawed out at Wellington., they could be brought over at thirty-iliillifigs per head, but science, as yet iaHfc) ty'fancy, is not equal yet to a proctjssfof this kind, and it is probable tlmtplO or £\2 per head-would be the riiihimiim cost at which subsidised steamers could convey in health and'' comfort steerage passengers. If a low passenger freight were thus obtained we" .dp not see why private enterprise should not do the rest of the work incidental to bringing "out suitable labor, If somo public company—say for example a capable organisation like the Now •Zealand I otm and Mercantile Agency, which') like a gigantic octopus, radiates ni allj.dii'ections, undertook with its .other-business the supplying of the ..Colonial: labor market it could do thework iho'rofefficiently and inore';.ecoho-. mically than-any Government Department: lunhe first place with a.proper cable code, it couklsend .orders periodically to England at a.noniinal cost, and .within a nominal.'period. Supposing a farmer for example on the. Opaki required a:generalfarm laborer, honest .•and industrious, to serve him for a twelve-months for twenty pounds and the. cost of his passage out, He orders say this particular man' from the local manager of the Agency, .and within a day or so the magic codal word, wjiich represented all , these requirements would be in London, a contract would' be entered .into on his behalf with some bucolic, and possibly within two months of the date of order the local agent in Masterton would hand, the rustic employee over to his employerand collect from the latter the necessary charges'.and commission. Were such an arrangement practicable • the farmer could make certain of procuring a regular supply of labor of the right sort at a moderate rate. The men who came out would be encouraged by the absolute. certainty of bettering themselves by immigration, and the Agency would in its turn earn a profit on the transaction. The question of an adequate supply of labor is one that must necessarily engage 'tho'attention of-_ Parliament during the coming sessio'n, and it would be well to anticipate the discussions which will then inevitably take place by considering I what are the best and most economical methods of supplying a want which every day is becoming more marked. We venture to suggest that the best solution of the difficulty will bo direct steam communication with England, and private enterprise in the direction which we have indicated