THE FROZEN OUT.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1134, 30 September 1879, Page 2

THE FROZEN OUT.

Sib,— lt is a pretty state of things when we have meetings of the unemployed m Waikato. I have been a resident m Hamilton from the very jffirst, and bad as times really were for many a long day here, we never got so far as that. Now things are very different. A man can get work if he wants it, and there are few, if out of employment for a week or fortnight, but can find, plenty to do on their own acres ; for most working men m this settlement have their own ground, and none but might have, if, instead of spending their money at the hotels, they would seek to make themselves independent. The truth is, the meeting was a mere cloak to the ulterior object — a good one enough, but, as Mr Vialou said, one which should have been got at ia quite a different way. Mr McDonald, at the meeting, m answer to Mr Vialou's telling speech, replied that, they should do what had been done down South. There the working men had got up a howl of want of employment, and the consequence was, that the people of those districts, where this cry was raised, were getting "the dollaia," while we, for want of getting up such a cry, were getting no public works carried on. Now, there may be some truth m this, and if I may judge of North Island unemployed meetings by our Hamilton one, I should say that their complaint is a howl, and nothing more— and probably, like ours, excited by abler heads than their, to get the dollars'. But sir. if they do wrong, that is no reason we shall do so. If they care to profit, by holding iip their districts as poverty •stricken pla^uo spots, that is no reason we should do the same. That the end justifies the means, seems to be the political oreed of some of our politicians but, m thin case, they are bringing a bad name on the place, and making us that ' shall not be believed when we do tell the truth, and all without sufficient cause While I deny the statement that there is more than a slaokness of work, I do think we have a just claim on the Government to get tho Thames Railway works started at this end— but the way to do so is, to call a public meeting, to urge the matter as one of right and justice on the Government, not to wh.iuq % chatty ljk^