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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4700, 20 April 1894, Page 2

S a, Home new appointments mada by tho Government have been eulogised ® by llip Ministerial organ, One or two ' will bear scrutiny, but others are a little shaky. They appear to affirm tiro principle thnt men, who are unIb successful i the ordinary walk of life, are specially adapted for State billets. , Tbe appointments, no doubt, are good ut for the 'camp Mowers of tbe Ministry but (here tile merit them ends. It does not strengthen tfie position of the Government to make the jiatrouage at its disposal a refuge for; unform tunate Liberals. Then, too, hava'tiofc - women 'now a' claim on euoh positions peii', aDd I: wLy should 31 they be 'overlooked? ' Would not 1 a good old mother make atf satisfactory a Parliamentary Reader as 'a p'oet, and wild [)qt a Virtuous tailoress, with a Jjroom to sweep jjp clieajtohes, mine brighter as a than a Fraser f

Acoqrdinq to our local contemporary the tender system is "now being carried to extremes tlimughont New Zealand; and that honest contractor cannot live under it.* As a matter of fact there is far leas tendering now-a-dajs i ban fotmerly, and instead of contractors being killed by compete tion they have been in some instances starved out by the new order of things, viz,, co-operative labour. It would be easy to point out once succfßaful local contractors like Mr John Gardiner who -now find' thoir occupation gone from this causn. The argument against the tender system is that it encourages dishonesty, as it is only by the evasion of specifications that a contractor can obtain a profit, With honest supervision we fail to fee how a contractor can evado his specifications with impunity. What is really nerded is not the abolition of the tender system, but | plenty of tenders in the open market. Everybody likes to see men working at a fair profit, but if conditions were altered so [hat a local body or a private individual could not put work in hand on ;-rofitable terms there would be more unemployed men than there are at present.

It is said that there are six hundred unemployed men in Wellington, and thern are certainly more than six hundred out of work in the country districts that aro connected with the town. How many unemployed men are there in the colony ? The Labour Bureau gives ua no help in making an estimate, but we probably understate the total if we put it at ten thousand. With say ten thousand idle men in New Zealand and work standing idle for twenty thousand, we got the position to wliioh the Ministry have brought the Colony by their well meunt efiorts to benefit the working roan at the expense of his employer. Will the Government "go ahead" with its policy till wo have twenty thousand unemployed men, or will it " back down."

It is repot ted that the number of labourersoniheEketahuna-Woodville line is to be augmented by a draft from Wellington, This sort of thing is becoming a see-saw-oycle-swindle, As fast as one batch of unemployed is sent up from Wellington or Christ' church another batch is dismissed and turned adrift to make room for newcomers. The Government tell the men they discharge that nomoney is available to keep them on as the vote for the line is expended, and then they send up another draft in their plains. Practically this is a help to a place like Wellington as it relieves the congestion there, hut how about places like Eketahuna which are swarming with icemen brought there by the Government and stranded in the country. It is about time that Mr Hot'g, M.H.R., put his foot down and stopped this glaring injustice to the country.

Tub Secretary of the New Zealand Alliance summarises theresults of the late Licensing election as follows: Abolition, 46,414) continuance, 37,150 f reduction, 14,588. Providence has been said to be on the side 'of the strongest battalion. In the present instance there can be no question but that the *' Prohibitionist "is the strongest battalion. Wo phould not lie surprised lo find the Government rti)ognißing this fact, ami m the coming session transferring the affection which it is supposed to have lavished in the past on the Licensed Victuallers to the total abstainers, Governments have a weakness for a big battalion |