Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1894. THE WAIRARAPA UNEMPLOYED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4849, 12 October 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1894. THE WAIRARAPA UNEMPLOYED.

Tin: action recently taken by throe Wairarapa station-owners and the persistent representations made by Mr Buchanan, M.H.li,, have at length drawn from the Government mi assurance Hint an inquiry will be made, and that steps will'be taken to meet the case, Mr Buchanan deserves credit forsecnringfromMiiiisters a pledge of this kind. He lias not sought it as a measure of relief to station-owners, wbo arc quite able to look after their own interests and wbo neither desire nor expect anything from the Government, but be has claimed it in the interests of hundreds_ of men wbo are in imminent peril of starvation. It is not the wish of station-owners that unemployed swaggers should be starved, they simply ask that tbo Government should make such provision as may be necessary to keep them until they are enabled to provide for themselves. The Government having undertaken to find work for the unemployed of NewZealandhavebilbcrtorestrieted their patronage or paternal cave to dwellers in the chief towns of the Colony. But men in tbo Wairarapa have just as much right to this assistance as men in Wellington or Christchurch. It is well known that the Government have sent at various times many hundreds of men into this district from Wellington and other parts of the Colony, and after a while has discharged them bore, The Government has overstocked our labour market, nnd has so brought about the present j difficulty. If tbo Government take I away to-morrow all the men whom it has sent into this district, the unemployed difficulty would be nt au end. What right has any Government to land say a thousand men in any one district, and after a while discharge them in the expectation that they will be absorbed by private enterprise. Tho Labour Department has hitherto been used as a, machine to transfer men from town to country, and in this task has been effective; but now it requires to be used as a machine to take men from the country back into tops, Tbo Government has acted as if an unemployed pendulum only swings in one direction.