The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1879.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1033, 6 February 1879, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1879.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religioud or political. +3♦ * * * Here shall the Tress tho pEorm's right maintain, „,-,», Unawed by i;dluenco and unbnbed. i?y bain.

Compared with Australia, Now Zealand has had but a mild attack of the " yellow agony." Tlio question of Chinese employment has not beeu forced upon tho European working classeshero as m some of the other colonies. StiU, there has, of late, been somo littlo agitation on tho subject of Chinese labor m tho Middle Island, and even m Wellington. The telegram, which' we publish elsewhere, that a hundred Chineso had been employed on tho Tapanui railway works, and that their employment would be likely to bo resented by the European laborers, would seem to indicate that we may, bofore long, m New Zealand, be as excitedly engaged m tho discussion of this social questiou, as our New South Wales fellow colonists have recently been. The auarcity of labor to bo got at all, and tho high rato of wages, nine shillings per day, given on railway contracts, will naturally lead to the employment of any available labour which contractors can procure. It is not our intention, at this time, to discuss the question of the advisability, or otherwise, of employing Cbiueso labor, but ratber to draw attention to the causes which havo led to rendering such labor attractive to employors, und the remedy. Tho Government and tlio Legislature are alono responsible for tbe present state of thtugej. We cannot acouse tho formor of want of foresight m asking for no more than tho amount they did for immigration purposoa. They did so with their eyes open lo the state of the colony, for, m a state paper published at Wollingtou, so far back as October the 3rd of last yoar, wUHe Parliament was m full session, we fiud the Miuistor for Immigration, Mr Stout, fully alive to the exigencies of the colony ', and the statement which we refer to must, if they wero not otherwise aware of tho facts, havo mado hou. members generally alive alao to tho necessities of tho caso. Yet, iv despite, of this otatemeut of the Miuister for Immigration, tbe Bum voted for the

introduction of immigrants was loft far lower than it should lmve been. That amount was j£170,G02, out of which Iho sum of £157,000 only would bo devoted ro tlio actual introduction aud location of immigrants. Yet at this timo tho greater portion ot the public works of the colony proposed to be construotod had not been commenced, and the demand for labour m all parts of the colony waa even then groater than the aupply. The documont we have referred lo is a communication addressed by tho Hon. Mr Stout lo tho AgoutGeneral m England, and was laid | upon the tablo of tbo Houae of Re- | presoulativos. It sets forth clearly enough the dearth of labor. " Thoro " are, alao," it goes on to say, "at " this, tho worst season of the year, "(Ootober 3), complaints of the " almost impossibility of procuring " laborers, and the settlors express "doubts that when harvest time " arrives they will be able to obtain " the necessary labor to secure their "crops. From tho Poverty Bay " district, similar complaints have " been sent m as to the great scarcity "of shepherds, ploughmen, general " servants, &c. I have merely cited " these iustances, but the rule will " hold good tor the wholo colony, "and the Government believe that " there will be employment for far " more immigrants thau they have ;i authorised you to Bend." Yef, the Government knowing this, and the Legislature forewarned of it, took uo steps to meet the more than possible contingency. A prudent forethought would havo placed at the disposal of the Government an additional sum for expenditure ou immigration if needed over and above tho original vote. That it has not done so has loft the country m far worse straits even than predicted by Mr Stout, and that too at a time when advantage might have been taken of tho depressed stato of tho labor market at home, to have scoured a better class of immigrants than tho New Zealand Government has ever succeeded m obtaining. That this stato of things will continue m the colony is a certain consequeuco of railway construction wnd the increased settlement of land wliich follows. The colony cannot make rapid strides m production and wealth but by tho employment of an increasing number of hands, and this body of labor is continually being depleted by those who, stepping from its ranks, become settlors m turn, and still further upset the balance of supply and demand, by becoming employers of labor themselves, instead of soekers of it. The truth is, the success of the Fablio Works Policy has shot beyond the expectations of even the most sauguino, and if the colony is to reap tho full benefit of it, the Government must be placed, m future sessions, m a more favorable J position, to meet the necessities of tho case, and have a wider discretion given them m so important a matter as that of immigration, than they havo aa yet enjoyed. To bo m a position to shut out Chinese labor, tho Government must be prepared to give tho colonists a sufficiency of labor m peoplo of their own race, and this thoy have not done, or we should not hoar of a contractor putting a hundred Chinese workmen on a railway contract iv Otago at the present time. The question of tho employment of Chinese labor must of necessity crop up iv the next session of Parliament, and one outcome of tho discusaiou.and not the least important one, will undoubtedly be the placing the immigration policy of the colony ov a wider and moie liberal basis, ouo wliich will freo private enterprise from the bouds which cripple its progress aud assure the success of the Public "WbrksJPoliey itself. It is population ouly,aiid that a much larger one thau the colony now possesses, which can create sufficient traffic to mako our railwaya pay, and spread the burden of tasatian over a sufficient number of shoulders to make tho load somewhat easier than it now ia to the individual colonist.