Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1874.] MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1895. SQUARING THE SWAGGER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5006, 22 April 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1874.] MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1895. SQUARING THE SWAGGER.

Never before in the history of the Colony have there been so many men tramping the country as is the case to-day. Many of the swaggers are honestand industrious men anxiously looking for work, but there are scores of them who are professional loafers, or sodden scoundrels dead to all manliness, and who prefer to exist on what they can beg, borrow or steal, The professional swagger exists in every clime, and he is perhaps no worse in character in New Zealand than elsewhere, but of the genuine workers seeking work tramping the roads and lanes, the number lias greatly increased during the past few months. Spite of the Labour Bureau and Labour legislation the number of the unemployed has multiplied considerably. This deplorable condition of affairs is generally attributed to tho prevailing depression. The whole of our exportable products have declined in value, and tho agricultural and pastoral industries which usually engage a large amount of labour are obliged to narrow down operations to correspond with thelessoned incomes derived from farming. No one has ever disputed the existence of a depression, of stagnation of trade, of tho absence of speculation, of the total want of confidence in the present and the future, Some observers with a critical eye for discerning cause and effect attitude tho depression and its attendant evils to the Government. Mr Seddon and his colleagues are credited, and not without some show of reason, for frightening away capital, foi shrivelling up speculation and causing uncertainty as to the future. llut the New /mland Times the ever alert Governmentglory grinder, seizes upon the results of three or four sa)es of tiny townships on tlie West Coast, to grind out a little glory for the Government. The effort is laborious and not altogether successful. According to thisauthority tho success of these sales demolished the depression, which it calls a farcical cry. A handful of speculators with a handful of money and less sense, misled probably by the art of the auctioneer in drawing word pictures, have bought up these township sections, and the onorgy of the Times' writer is expended in endeavouring to pmvo that t|ie depression does not exist, that speculation is not dead and that the Government has not tyrannised capital, This is glory cheaply won, and the Ministry ; can take it all, but the people of the : Colony cannot be so easily misled,

nor can the stubborn facts supplied by the prevailing conditions of trade be set aside by the idle clatter of the New Zealand 'limes, The auxiliary attitude of the Times in all matters affecting the Ministry is well known and its most recenteifort to discredit the depression is ludicrous, and is appreciated at its full value.

The despairing cry of the unemployed is too loud and pitiful to let us forget that we are suffering from an intense commercial depression. The Government itself does not attempt to repudiate this, on the contrary,the Ministry apparently see that the unemployed question will assume gigantic proportions this winter, unless something is done, and we are accordingly promised a "comprehensive and effective sohomo" for converting the workers into wellpaid laborers. The proposals of the Government are on the time-worn lines of pauperising the people with State charity. The main feature of the Government scheme is the erection of State sawmills, which are to be worked on the co-operative system, and the Government sawmills are to compete for the Australian and Home trade.

The deserving unemployed are thus to be absorbed, and when the work of timber cutting is finished, they ought to be comfortably settled on the little plots of ground to bo granted to them, and upon which tlioy will be allowed to work from two to three days a week alternately with the Government stroke. The»e is a plausibility about the scheme, which at a first glance seems to spell success, but when we poke about the crevices and crannies, we find little bugs and beetles of the "right color" battening on the funds and making tip top comfort for themselves. Who will be the "deserving unemployed ?" and how will they be selected ? According to the Liberal Creed, ho is most woilhy and most deserving, who votes blindly for Seddon. The passport for the proposed relief work, will consist in the amount of influence that can bo brought to bear on Ministers. An unemployed laborer with a Conservative leaning, will stand as much chance of getting into the Government sawmills, as he would of getting the first prize in Tatter,sail's sweep. Those of the unemployed, who are really desirous of obtaining employment, will qualify themselves for selection by promptly smearing themselves with the Government paint, and become correct-lined Liberals. These State sawmills and the whole comprehensive scheme of the Government lo grapple with the unemployed d : llioulty bavebeen evolved and perfected by "straightoutSocialist " Reeves, who seems to have got the idea after a visit to a Victorian swamp last year. But the Colony is not to stop at socialistic sawmills, but is to go a step further and establish State tailoring shops. A recommendation lis totk desirability of venturing in this direction has just been made by the Labour Con-

ference, now sitting is Christehurch. The Conference Ims hud the counsel and advice of the straight out socialist in the seclusion that is granted bj a cackle in Committee. 'Government shops for the manufacture of slopclot.hing,and uniforms for policemen, will, 110 doubt, as the result of the close consultation with the Minister of Labour, appear as the next iteir of the socialistic programme. Who can complain if the deserving unemployed liberal tailors and tailoresses want a cut in at Government money. At the rate we are going, it will not be long before New Zealand secures a notoriety for political shows and socialistic freaks far excelling the fame that now attaches to her, through mildness of climate, productiveness of soil,wiidand romantic scenery, and the other profuse gifts of nature. It is not socialistic slop shops and sawmills that the country needs, but the power to make the natural productions of the Colony profitable. Make production pay, and the unemployed difficulty will disappear. The muddle beaded Ministry of New Zealand are 011 the wrong track, but the billet-hunting, leather-lunged Liberals are indifferent to that fact, being anxious only for present gain and personal aggrandisement.