Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4213, 8 September 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1892.

Being the emended title of the Wairahapa Daily, with wniCH. it is tOBtmOAL,

It is difficult to get at facts and figures in connection with the road and railway works inthe bush districts conducted under tbe new co-operative system by the Government, To a great extent the service is a secret one, men boing warned that if they divulge information will) respect to thoir earnings and hours of labour, the wrath of tbe authorities will foil upon them and that they will be turned out of that little Garden of Eden which the Government has planted for the benefit of tbe impecunious, Tbere is very littlo doubt that work done under this system costs tbe country at least a third more than ordinary contract labor, Tbat is, the country pays £l5O for every £IOO worth of co«operativo work done on its behalf, It is, of course, abappy and fortunate circumstance that the Colony can afford, or tbat Ministers think it con afford, to pay for its labour on such terms. Tbe rock ahead is tbe impossibility of maintaining for any prolonged period an artificial standard of wages. Tbe advocates of tbe system claim that under it the weakest and most inexperienced men may turn a fair day's waijet, Perhapß no severer condemnation of a system can be uttered than this, If the new bureau can guarantee a fair day's wages to weak and inexperienced men, all tbe weaklings from tbe Australasian Colonies must come to us, for certainly no other community is likely to offer thorn equal torrua. It is, perhaps, a) well that tbe system should be tried, because in time sufficient information will be available to enable the public to judge both its advantages and its drawbacks, Of course the letting out of small contracts to co-operative parties entails a special expense in supervision, and it may be doubtful whether conditions are insisted upon as strictly undor tbe new dispensation as under the old one, The Government are, no doubt, entitled to credit for a wellmeant effort to help "lame dogs over styles," but their efforts are not unlike thoßO adopted by " Robßoy," " Robin Hood," and other heroes of romance, they rob the rich to help the poor. They are not particular whose money they appropriate, so long as they can collar some for distribution amongst those whom they have come to regard as their friendß and supporters. They moke friends of tbe mammon of unrighteousness, but this is neither statesmanship nor honest government,