ADAM'S CURSE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2052, 1 September 1885, Page 3

ADAM'S CURSE.

(\iK"s) Mil IIfcNKY C'ni'hl V\D, a membei of the Legislative Assembly of N« u South Wales, has ]iibt publish) d a pamphlet undei the title of Ad.imNs Cm so, in \\ Inch ho embaiUs on a, cius.idc against lii.icluiieiy an 1 lalioiir sa\in^ apphanus guioially. Tlic-i!, he contends, lm-it the cinploj ment of labour on the one hind, ami k.ul to o\ei pioduotion on the othci '1 1.c vitality of sonic of thcae vciiciahlc economic tallacies .seems to be indistiiic tiblc. Mr Copeland's aigumcnt is icilly one winch is directed against civilisation, and in favoui ot baibaiibin ; for as a tool of the simplest const! action is .actually a machine just as a machine is a complex tool, it follows that if s>ocicty weieto begin to make war upon mechanical inventions, as hostile to the interests of labour, and restrictive of liiiimn employment, it could not very well stop until we had got back to the practice of giubbing in the eaith with our lingers foi roots, and weaving garments out of vegc table fibres with our hands. The assumption upon which the arguments iig.iinst niachmciy aie based n piovul to be wholly eironeous by the testimony of human uxpeiience. M.icliinciy not merely arguments pioduction, but in ci eases the demand fui laboiu. Woollen maunfitctuies are a case in point In 183.1 th»' to al number of pvi.so'is employed in the blanch of industiy in tin whole of the United Kingdom was stated by the factoiy in-"j>eutois to be 71,-7t. It had lism in 1871 to 2.12 000 in England alone. At the fuimcr peiixl the wnges of the operatives di<l not avei.ig' mote than Us per week At the latter one the average was "21-* per weok ; vvlii'e, at ths same time the ptiidia-in» povvc of cv try shilling earned h id been nnteri.illy increased by the opeiaticn of fue tiade. In 153.1, the declined value of woollen goods of all kinds c\poi ted fiom ( treat Diitnin was in round numbeis £l), 000 000. In 1870 it wa-« upwaids of, C'JIi.OOO.COO. In the meantime, machinery, by cheapening production, had rcndeied blankets and (t.innils, woisted and cloth fabiics, accesible to all classes of society, and the health, comfoit, find personal appear ance of the great m.i«« of the people had been impioxed in consequence. It has been the Maine with almost eveiy descnp tion ot Kiitish mnnulactures. Steam and the piogie«s of met h inical invention have .itmed human bcingi with productive poweis of incalculable magnitude and value ; ami it is not by encaging in any necessaiily futile e(Toi ts to at test these in their inesistible in.ueh, that we can hope to solve the social pioblems which now perple\ us ; but by considering how we can best piovidn for a less inequitable di«tiimition of the pioducts of industry, and by piomoting a widei ililluiioi) of those pimcplci ot piovideuce, teinpciance, foiotliought, and si'lf denial, which uMial'y constitute tlie found, itions ot individual piospenty and .success.

At the half yeail) rent an lit at KnebwOlw 01 tli l'aik, on the .'sd July the Kill of Lj tton > emitted 10 per cent, to his tenants. This is not the fiist remission (luring these trying times which his lordship has made. VAiii'K oKQuhHssr.AVi) Ciiki six — The pi ice of cheese in Queensland is tempting tt exporteis, who now find mo-it maiketa glutted with their commodity, as it is reported that cheese sent to the Colony fiom the Waikato(Ncw Zealtnd) Factory has been readily ictailed at Is (id per lb., — Exchange. ?au: oi Wool, at Wjm'Ml.ni ru — A large sale of English wool took pl.ice at Winchester on July 3id when 100,000 fleeces were ofleied to bnyeid from liiadtoid, Halifax, Coik, Carm.uthcn, and other centies of the wool and cloth ti.ules. Pi ices landed from !)d to 10(1, being no alteiation in the existing quotations, but 2d per lb. less than last year. Si'iakim; of the gentiments of Americans towards the mother country, the New Yoik Times observes: — '•So far from considering that the mteiests of civilisation would be served by tho defeat of England, they are much more nearly of the opinion expiessed the other day by a Vienna newspaper, that " the last days of England's powci would bo the last days of Euiopean libeity." With respect to England's enemy, the same journal lemarks that "It m quite impossible foi intelligent America to aym pathise with the Government of Russia, which is in form an autocracy, nnd in fact a brutal and com apt oligarchy, against a power to which civilisation owes so much as it does to England. I'om'km \\l> Mui'Rlsr. — "I was dragged down with debt, poverty, and *uffenng for yi'.ir*, c msed l>\ .i <,i( !c f imily .'lndHrire billsfor do( lorinfj, which did them no Rood. I wai complciely ducoiiraifrd, until one year ngn. by the .ulviro of my pastor, I procured Hop Hitters and rommcKod their use, and in one month we were .ill well, hnd none of us h ivo seen .1 su k d.iysnuc, .me! I w nit to say to .ill poor men, you (.in keep your funili(< \wlla\p<ir with 1 American Co* Hop Bitt( is for 1( 9S tli in one doi tor's tiMtwill rost I know it." — A Working Man. Read