The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1886. TWO PICTURES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2383, 26 August 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1886. TWO PICTURES.

A'telegram yetterday stated that three hundred of the AitokJand unemployed were now engaged on Government and municipal works, In other parts of the colony a similar condition of the labor market exists. The very largo percentage of unemployed in New Zealand now presents a picture which will not commond this colony to favorable consideration at home. It. is, however, the natural outcome of our great publio works policy, which has attracted large numbers of persons to our shores and impeded,'ratherth«in advanced, the real settlement of the country. For the last fourteen years labor, at rates ranging from six-and-sixpence to eight shillings per day, h<is been tolerably plentiful on our public works, and many men, finding that they could earn more money on railways than on land, abandoned the axe aud the .plough/for the shevel of the navvy. Had they stuck to the land they would now have been in a condition of comparative independence; as it is, when publio works taper off, they are reduced to a state of almost pauperism. ' The concourso of unemployed at Auckland is simply one of the blossoms of Sir Julius Vogel's inflation policy, and though he is now in power, he is apparently unable toremedy the distress which has followed upon ! his great enterprise. The unemployed of Now Zealand present a sad picture, but.there is another still sadder, for which the present Ministry is responsible. The latter one is the wanton waste of publio treasure on unworthy objects. The Government are doling out sixpence an hour to the Auckland unemployed, but it is in evidence that they havo put eight or nine thousand pounds into the pocket of an Auckland speculator, Mr Stark clearing out with seventeen thousand pounds of Government money, paid for a patch of land worth only five or six, is a picture that can be well put beside that of the unemployed. More money was thrown away on Mr Stark in one day than a thousand unemployed men could earn on public works throughout the winter. Of course a committee of the House exonerated the Government on the Stark affair, but then the verdiot of committees of this kind are usually known beforehand. Tho Government practically selects its. own committee of investigation, aud the committee so selected as a matter of course declares that the Government

are not guilty. The Stark scandal and the unemployed scandal both'lie at tEe door oi the Ministry of which Sir Julius Yog<;l huH been the guiding Bpirit, ■'.''.