The Wairarapa Daily TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3814, 19 May 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1891.

The Premier's action in sending a number of Wellington tradesmen to the Wairarapa to do toad work is no doubt well intentionad, but it will scarcely stand criticism. A Wellington tailor or printer can perhaps do balf-a-crown's worth of work per diem with a pick and shovel, and to enable him to accomplish this, or perhaps I merely to attempt it, the Government will spend two or three pounds on him to get him away up country from his wife and family and from the! work which be is best fitted to undertake, A tailor say, who might earn half-a-crown a day in the bush at poad making, .could no doubt earn more at bis own Qccupatypn in Wellington. No doubt in that city plenty of employers would willingly give him three, four, or even five shillings a day, but at this point trade Unionism steps in and declares that a man must not work for less than so many shillings a day and a master must not pay less than so many shillings per day. The man is boycotted by Unionism eat of his own proper trade and must try some other occupation which is open to the unemployed. But then even voad making is a skilled pursuit and there are numbers of men in the bush who make their living by it, and these men will probably in time form a Union of their own if they find their occupation is made a relieving establishment for all the tradfls and occupations of the city. What right has *be Premier to shunt city bred men to a district where they are unfitted to earn a Uying, from a town where they certainly could gain a subsistence if unionism did not stand in their way. As we have before suggested, the onus of making a provision for the unemployed should be thrown upon the Unions which hav6 created the difficulty, The colony is unlikely to «*matuate a system under which *•- . * -"will turn put periodical Unionism... -t*ved mi the batches of —"vttc&l Premier will make a pei<v~

provision for them. "We do not at all object to work being found for sack men, bat we do oppose the Government recognition of a system of unionism which breeds an unemployed class. If this system be allowed to develop it will speedily break down the resources of the Government. The experiment of sending tradesmen to the country as road makers will undoubtedly be a costly one, and will tend to open the eyes of the bosh settlers to the absur« dity of the Government policy. Colonists are being heavily taxed now for charitable aid, and under this new departure of the Govern-

ment they will be double banked. If unionism continues to be backed up by the Government we shall get in time about a third of the able bodied men in the community on the State poor list.