The Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1895. THE LABOUR CRISIS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5053, 17 June 1895, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1895. THE LABOUR CRISIS.

Tin: policy of the Ministry is to prevent lower priced labour competing with higher priced labour, and it such a policy could be carried out it would bo a good thing for the community, but it is about as impossible as making water run up hill. To carry it out it is necessary that all the unskilled labour in the Colony should be paid a high rate of wages, The Government cannot do this, ami private employers of labour cannot do it. When wages fall the amount of labour in tho open market . increases, and when wages rise the amount decreases, From the firstgvou while times were good—tin Government met with the insuperable difficulty that every effort madt to keep up an artificial standard ol wages threw men out of employment Year after year under the present Ministry the numbersof unemployed have increased, and will go on increasing as long as checks an applied to the cost of production Take asperiod of twenty-five yean from 18b'7 to 1872, when no labom checks .practically ..oxistcd,aud wage! were at a fair level, unskilled labom commanding from six to soven sbil lings a clay; how was it that wagei kept up without-artificial aid ? I , was simply because plenty of work was available! Wha the working man requires is plenty of work rather than high wages and tho policy of tho Govern moiit is fatal to his obtain ing full employment. Wo havi come to this pass, that it ii now, deemed to be the correct tbinf for working men- cither to have ful wages or to starve. (Jur local con temporary wrote, tho other day that" the majority of working-met are willing to make a sacrifice 01 account of the existing depression but there are few indeed, who wouh Hot rather starve than work fori shilling a day, or even two shilling! a day for that matter." Wo do no 1 think thoro is much real question o starvation, for a man as a rub either works for what he can get, o: lives upon bis neighbours, Evoi supposing he can earn but twi shillings a day, is it not more manrj to toil for this pittance, than t( ; stand idle and live upon charity W« wmld like the luiemployet themselves to answer this question Two shillings a day, under ordinary circumstances, may be terribly pooi wages, but it is inlinitely better thai nothing a day. Thirty years ago we worked with a man who prided himself upon living like a fighting cock on ten shillings a week. Hi was a clever caterer, and would buj

i head for sixpence, aud with a lew vegetables make a big pot of wup that lasted him three days. Single men if they go the right way ;o work can livo very cheaply in (few Zealand. A day's wages at the lespised two shillings will bay six pounds of wheat meal, six pounds of mutton, and twelve pounds of potatoes, Even' if a man bad a wife and family he could keep the wolf from the door at a critical time on such small earnings. We know a man last winter who worked for two shillings a day and lived comfortably on this sum. This winter ho is in steady work at six ' shillings a day. Now wo respect this man for taking two shillings a day when lie could get nothing hotter. He did not go to the Government, he did not borrow, be did notgo indebt,ue simply lived on what he earned and tided over a had time without assistance. Yet, according to our local contemporary this man ought to have starved in preference to baying been well fed and self-reliant. We do not advocate a reduction of wages, nor do we advocate raising them. We prefer high wages to low ones because ovou employers of labour prosper moro when wages are high, but they must be raised, not by any artificial process nor by labour legislation, but by abundance of work. To secure abundance of work thora must bo free compotitiou in the labour market. Higher wages follow an abundance of work, but an abundance of work does not follow higher wages, and it is in this latter bog that the Government have placed the working men of New Zealand. The moment the presont labour Ministry came into power, work began to diminish. In Wellington, trades unions put up tho rato of wages, and employers of labour responded by dismissing men. Instances were related to us at the time, bymorchantsand others who were called upon to pay _a higher rate of wages. Thoy paid them, for thoy would not fight the unionists with tho Government at their back, but they contracted tlieir expanses, and prepared for a coming evil day, by sacking one man out of every three in their employ. This was in good' limes, when prices of produce wero high, and prosperity was general, From then till now, the process of cutting down expenses, reducing salaries, and dismissing! hands, has been continuous, and will go on as long as the labourunions rule New Zealand. We have come now ' (onciiticnl time, but if the present crisis docs not show men the mistake that bus been made, a still worse one must be expected.