The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1884. UNEMPLOYED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1806, 6 October 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1884. UNEMPLOYED.

The percentage of unoniployed men in tho Wairarapa is now exceptionally large. The causes which have produced this unsatisfactory state of the local labor market are; first, the presence amongst us of a considerable number of men, who, hearing that work was plentiful in thin district, have flocked to it from other parts of the colony, and secondly, the partial cessation of public works under the Government and the County. From up-country stations we hear that Bwaggersßwarm,andin the town menare standing at the street corners who are evidently looking for employment. As yet the cry of the unemployed is not heard, but there is some risk of it being raised before the hay and corn harvest absorbs the surplus hands. It is painful to reflect' that probably several hundreds of willing hands are idle in a district like the Wairarapa, while tens of thousands of acres of good land, which will pay to clear and cultivate, remain unoccupied and neglected. There are some who advocate special remedies for maintaining an equili brium in the labor supply, and demand such as fostering local industries and creating a population of mechanics. We have but little faith in such prescriptions. There is one thing worse than a floating population of unemployed navvies and bushfallers, and that is an unemployed manufacturing population, Tho artificial methods proposed to be adopted to create such a population in New Zealand must necessarily, if carried into effect, be followed by fluctuating and uncertain industries, so that, instead of having men knocking about who are capable of turning their hands to a score of jobs, we should, in the future, have wanderers who were only fitted for one special mechanical operation, The land, not manufactures, should in this colony absorb all surplus labor The land is practically the only profit-' able investment we have. As compared with other colonies, or as contrasted with the countries of the old world, our land is cheap and fertile. In spite of past mismanagement and a, heavy load of debt expended on unprofitable public works, it defrays all

our liabilities. Bringing a larger area into cultivation too, does not mean deminishing the value .of the property already occupied. On the contrary, thanks to our new export trade, it tends to benefit them. Settling surplus labor on land is not a speculative remedy, but a certain cure for a surfeited labor market. We trust that the Government and Parliament will do all in their power to facilitate the settlement of waste lands, by offering them on such terms that even the man who carries all his worldly goods in his swag can take up a holding and root himself, however thin the fibre, to the soil.