The Waitkato Times. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1879.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1077, 20 May 1879, Page 2

The Waitkato Times.

TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1879.

Equal and exact justice to all men, , Of whatever state dr persuasion, religious or political. t Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbnbed by gain.

The telegrams which we pnblish today contain more' than usually interesting intelligence. The tone of the wool- market; has already experienced a sensible re-actioti, and the opening of the sales on the 15th. inst. was marked by an advance m the value of cross-breds of from one halfpenny to one -penny per lb. This of itself is important news to the colony, for the depression m the value of wool has materially assisted m bringing about a dulness m business m the South Island which the commercial crisis at home m the commencement of the year would not otherwise have been sufficient to have effected. It would seem too, that m Canterbury at least, the evil resnlting from the continued scarcity and consequent dearness of labor has received a practical check through the steady influx of immigrants. A meeting of the unemployed was held m Christen uroh on Sunday at which one hundred and fifty persons were present. The chief cause of complaint that " men of property were trying to reduce ihe working nianfc wages from five to ten (probably a telegraphic mistake for " from ten to five") shillings per day sufficiently shows the grounds for complaint, and the character of the movement —that it is merely an attempt to keep up a prohibitive rates of wages and does not result from any actual want of employment. The meeting called upon the Government to find work for them-^-at the higher rale of wages it is to be presumed — but this request no Government is likely to concede to. It may be the duty of the Government to provide work when men are walking about idle m times of industrial depression, but not for the purpose of enabling men dissatisfied' with the current rate of wages to force general employers into higher rates. It does not, however, seem to be the general opinion of the colonists m the South Island that the labor market is being over-stocked, for apart from the work of regular Government immigration, we observe that at Dunedin between the 10th of April and the 16th of May there were received at tho Immigration Office applications, under the nominated system, for two hundred and eighteen souls, and at Invercargill daring the same period applications for one hundred and thirty-one more. Late newa from the Cape states that no military mo7ement had yet taken place, that Lord Chelmsford delays the advance until the arrival of ' reinforcements. Another piece of important information, and a healthy sign of the times, is the report of the sale of land m Southland, by the New Zealand Company. Sold m fair sized farms of 250 acres, land realized the enormous price of £60 per acre, to bona fide settlers, while a minimum price of £25 per acre was obtained for heavily timbered lots.