Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1895. CO-OPERATIVE FRAUD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5057, 21 June 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1895. CO-OPERATIVE FRAUD.

We have always been of tlie opinion that the co-operative system is a fraud on the taxpayers of the Colony in the sense that for each thousand pounds spent on such employment they only get live hundred pounds worth of work. A letter appears in another column of this issue signed "Malum'," which strongly confirms this view. It is written by a practical settler, born in the Colony, who has spent all his life in bard work on land, and who understands far better than any Minister of the Crown what work is. It is from such competent witnesses that wo in the country get the bare naked truth about co-operative labour. We believe it is not allowed entranco to (he big wooden buildings, or that it is even credited in a centre like Wellington. According to our correspondent there are two classes of co-operative labour gangs, first, the younsr strong; men, anil second, the duffers. The strong man pets half tho price paid to the duffer but at this half-rato ho knocks 15s ,1 day and upwards out of his job. Work according to our correspondent is so let that an able man gets double wages at it and an unable man four times as mucli as it is worth. On this basis a contract which in the open market would cost £2,000 to execute would under the co-operative system cost nearly £6,000. The money lost and wasted has to be paid for by the Colonial taxpayer. This is the system on which our public works are constructed, Any private individual! who managed his business on such a mad pkn would get into debt and difficulty and this is exactly what tho Colony is doing,

Tun progressive Lib: Elective eral Association of Executive. Ohristchurch, which,

like one we iave in this district, where three men and a boy meet to sottlo tie fate of New Zealand, has a finger in every pie. We have j nst receivod from it a copy of Jukes Steward's Eleotive Exec'u'. tive Bill. Wicked people say that Jukes Steward has been a lifetime in the House, and no Ministry has ever offered him a portfolio. Under those circumstances, he is bringing in a Bill which, if carried, will give him a chance of preferment. Party Government does not suit a party who cannot get a portfolio, and so this particular party engages a progressive Liberal' Association to denounco it with bell, book' and candle. My Steward has had his political igJiances, and has missed

them. His own party has dropped lnra, irnd all the progressive Liberal I Associations in the Colony, will not I set him aloft again.

An nnasual number The of platitudes expiesGovernor's sed in turgid languSpbeoh. age make up the Governor's Speech. What a treat it would have been if Ministers had only employed the Editor of the New Zealand Times to write the thing out for them in elegant English! The Speech does not sound well, and its taste is nasty. There is quite a phannacopcoia of liberal drugs in it, including salt for the working man's tail, senna for ratepayers, boluses for employers, and arsenic for local bodies. Then iu the Qazelk looms up the gigantic semi-State lottery gamble, a fitting climax to the Speech and to the prayer for the divine blessing on the labours of Parliament.