The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1889. Poor Law Projects.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3143, 2 March 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1889. Poor Law Projects.

It has been an old reproach against the Premier that he ia too roady to take up the latest.idea in an English magazine and embody it in colonial legislation, and to a great extent his mind seems to he that of an adaptor rather than that of an originator, His latest project for farming the unemployed is claimed by the Hawkes Bay. Herald to be suggested by an article published in the November number of the Ninteenth Century, The following is a summary of its contents :

"It may be assumed that sufficient land could bo bought tor such .a purpose' within a hundred miles of London,-'-The persons selected for employment would be able-bodied men, such as seem likely to be both ablo and willing to profit by tho training to be given on the farm. They would be then called on to do the work of the place, to dear the land, to dig, to look after cattle, and to rough carpentry. Thoy would bo instructed when they needed instruction, and would be taught some of the elementary rules which govern tho growth of. orops or the care of animals, They would receive board and lodging, and be credited with a small wage payable at tho expiration of tho term on the farm, They would be called on to submit to all the regulations of the superintendent, but it would be understood that the regulations would not be merely vexatious, but framed for the better education of each laborer, Lastly, admission would only bo offered to men for 'wkose.wives and families support was by some means, charitable or otherwise, assured in town. Tho length ol stay .would \)t at the discretion of the superintendent -•three months, six months, or a year—but to those who proved themselves efiioient the offer would be.mado of a fixed tenure ot land in England or of emigration to the colonies." In dealing with the question of expense Mr Barnett points out that it cannot be greater than is the present cost of the unemployed to tho community. "Their support," ho remarks, '.'is in a great measure taken out of the food cupboard of those almost as poor as themselves ;' it is a national cost,'a ohargo which-the. people pay as truly as that of the army and navy. The mischief is that the support of the unemployed has now no result but to-increase the number of the ill-fed and tho ill.living. If their support on a training faiin. turned only one in ten.. into a; wealth-producing memberol the community the gain would be great," " . .:

The advice Dr Aberuetby once gave to a rich man is probably the best that can be given to a poor one, viz., I "to live on a shilling a day and earn it." Unfortunately in England the unenipl.Qv.ecl cannot always depend upon 'earning a filling a day, But lie is pretty certain Qf'feeing able to secure it in the colonies, If.fiir flarry'Atlrinson can mate'the unemployed here ■ earn each man .the

Bbiliihg it probably costs' to support Win, lie' wiU; do gpotli pveu though he borrows a fioliemefroin the Ninteenth: Century, ;-. 'Not; that sit ought to cost a shilling to keep'a man a day, in a place like. New Zealand, Aphilosopher'has recently; discovered thai he can keep himself in the perfection of health and strength by the'diurnal consumption of two pennyworth of whole mealand a liberal allowance. of watpr. : " This view is not popular, and we know from experience-that even those who depend upon alms regard a comfortable allowance of such things as meat,butter, tea, and sugar as essential to keeping air imaginary wolf from : the door. - They altogether fail to realise that such articles are luxuries, and that some of them were unknown to their, ancestors'in the middle ages, Sir Harry's, farming scheme does not meet the more pressing difficulties of the colony. Indigent men can usually get some, light employment about farms; and the ■ eases of poverty which demand the gravest consideration are those which emanate from either the sickness or death of the breadwinner. What is to-be done, with those men who are the victims of some incurable malady? Shall accommodation be found for them in gaols.'as in the case of a neighboring colony, and What shall be done for the wives and families of men- so afflicted, and of otbor rnenfwho, by death or desertion, leave women arid little children who are scarcely .able to battle with the world ?'-. We fancy ourselves.that if the Premier'means to establish relief farms, he-ought to let such women and children, if necessary, go on them,,', In any new project which may be launched, it.is essential that it should meet the urgent cases of the colony, and not be the outcome of a scheme in England, More a social problem of a very different land has to be solved. A farm as a training ground for the unemployed may be useful if men, women, and children can be gathered in on such a place and find therefood, shelter, and such work as it may be in their power to perform, till Buch time as they may be fit to turn out into the world again, Still we question whether Sir Harry Atkinson's new scheme does not disguise a workhouse just in the same way that the project of the-late Ministry for charitable aid concealed a poor law. We have the latter now, and the workhouse will be the practical outcome of the next legislative effort,