Untitled

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4022, 27 January 1892, Page 2

Mb Bimon Boys, J,P„ of Masterton, is reported to have taken occasion at the K,M. Court on Monday to emphatically deny the statements that drunkenness was becoming prevalent in Masterton or that the Bench and police failed lo perform their duty, We are Borpy to differ from so. able an authority, but the evidence of our own eyes, of the male residents of the town, of the female residents of the place, to say nothing of the children who are frightened as tliey go to and from school by the horrid examples they are compelled lo meet; compel us to re-affirm that drunkenness is disgracefully prevalent in this town, and that either the justices or tho police are displaying too great a laxity. If Mr Boys had young ohildren uttending the State school, ani} heard them describe the people they p.asa 'as jthey traverse the main Btreet, hewould r wejjee]snre,. take a different view of tbe.responsi-i bilities of the police and the Bench,

[ Writing about the new 'labour .hpau pur local coatemporary speaks asfojlQjvsj-

It is to remove this fric,tiou. jthat the Government Bureau of Industries has' been, estaSl'hed, Wlien labourcomes toas}and.. still and to stop and rust it applies the necessary o!!: ft" tendency is to remove undue competition afflong bfeadwinners, and prevent the tools of capital, in the shape of unscrupulous traffickers in labour, from defrauding the workman of the proceeds of his sweat, The effect of the Government Bureau will we venture to affirm be in ,<juite the opposite direction contemplated by the writer of the above paragraph. Jifew /Zealand stands alone in the Anstraliasjan group in offoriug remunerative'. a-orfs' to 'all by tho operation of a State bureau, Thousands of men 1 who hang'about the streets of Sydney and Melbonrne, Brisbane and Adelaide, will endeavour to make for these shores, becauso in this Colony, and this Colony only, there is a guarantee of employment, They huye already began to land, and their presence will have a marked effect on the labour market, The only thing

which will oheok the invasion will, be a reduction in the rate of wages, The Bureau cannot make employment for other than a limited number of men. Once that limit is passed the unemployed will range the Colony and produce a new elementof competition in the labour market, which will be' h'resistible. We affirm that a State guarantee of employment even at six shillings a day will flood the Colony with new arriyals. New Zealand is offering a higher bid to the unemployed than any other Colony, and the unemployed will be booked down to us. Twelve months hence, if the present Ministry continues in power, w6 shall expeot to see wages come down to five shillings aduy.

The codlin moth has had it all its own way in Mastertou this season, spoiling probably some eight or ten tons of fruit, which may represent a money loss of two or three hundred pounds to the growers, A year ago we suggested a remedy which we still believe to be the right solution of the difficulty. We then proposed that the local Horticultural Society should pick out a man competent to wage war against the pest, and let his services to the owners ; of orchards on reasonable terms. An expert of this kind, furnished with the best appliances, could do an immense amount of good during the two or three months that the apples might require protection. The idea of every man being bis own codlin moth exterminator is as absurd as that of every man being his own lawyer or doctor. The awful grub requires a special study, special appliances and special skill. It may be quite possible to train and equip ono man for the fray, but it is patent that nine out of ten growers in this neighbourhood are quite incompetent to deal with the difficulty. Probably less than fifty pounds would suffice to break the neck of the enemy in any one year, and it would certainly pay for local residents to subscribe some such sum for the practical suppression of the moth.