Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29,1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4287, 29 November 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29,1892.

Beino tbe extended title or the Wairarafa Daily, with which it is IDENTICAL

It baa been held by a great American lecturer, who is iu touch with the Labour Party of tho United Slates, (bat the first duty of a man is towards bis family, and that nothing must be allowed to take precedence of this duty. If this axiom be true, it will in time be aocepted by mankind, and its adoption will solve many of the difficulties whioh liavo been encountered in tho conflict of labour against capital,

In New Zealand, the observance of this law would bavo saved many men from ruin, When tho Wellington wharf-strike took place, a number of husbands and fathers placed thoir obligations to thoir Unions before their duties to their families, and as a consequence they lost their means of livelihood, and for several montbß their wives and ohildren literally bocame beggars, There is some occasion, therefore, in this country, as well as in America, to study this principle of the first duty of a man, and in a case of emergency to act upon it, If our friend, the shearer, who refused seventeen shillings and sixpence per hundred for shearing was unable to obtain equally well-paid workelsewhere.he should undoubtedly as a first duty to bis family have accepted it, He was impelled to decline by the consideration that the general body of shearers in the district obtained a higher rate of pay, and that it was an act of loyalty on his part to hold out for wbat he deemed'to be the standard rate of wages, but according to tbe prinoiple laid down by an eminent friend of tbe workers, he would be bound to make bis family the first consideration, and his co-workers tbe second.

We believe, ourselves, that the principle is a right one, and that when a man binds himself to a society or union so that at a critical time he is compelled to sscrifice the welfare of bis family, he oommits a orime. Unions may be, and undoub-; tcdly aro, of great Bervico,to working men, friendly societies generally aro examples oi tho good that can bo done by the establishment of brotherhoods, but no union Or society should be deemed worthy of confidence whiob claims or cxeroiSes a right to come between a man and his family or in any. way prevent him from doing the very best in bis power for %

comfort and happiness of tlioeo who arn dependent upon him. A union or society which deprives a man of his liberty to work ■ when and where ho pleases and for the best wages he can obtain is a t.yrqnt to be held at arms length. It is possible for unions and societies to be ratal)lishi'd on tbo basis that a man's first duty in towards his family and it is such anions and such societies which deserve tho confidence and support of the men of New Zealand. The general acceptance of such a principle is of the first importance, because at a critical time, at some moment of excitement such a rule would often save men from intolerable calamity and misfortune.