The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, SEPT. 6, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2365, 6 September 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TUESDAY , SEPT. 6, 1887.

Kqual and exact justice to all men, Ot whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

It is pleasing to learn that our article of the l!3rd ult. oa the labour question lias found favour with the thinking men of the working class, in whose interest it was written, more perhaps than in that of the farmer ; for wc have been assured by many of the former that, with a lower rate of wages regularly received and the advantages wo enumerated, the farm labourer would be in a far better position than he now is looking for a jab here or a job there, and working, perhaps, only half his time for an extra shilling or two per day. What we proposed, is nothing more nor less than that which has been done by some few farmers, and found to work admirably ; to provide a comfortable collage home on the farm,

with a qui'ilnn and grass for one or two cows, to supply him with meat, potatoes, or other farm produce, at wholesale market price, and to give regular employment all the year round, at a rate of wages some twenty or twenty-live per cent below the current rate. This has been done in several instances wo could mention, and has worked well for both. The labourer has earned more actual money in cash by the end of the year, and ho and his family have lived more comfortably than would have been the case if he had had to take bis chance of finding work. The fanner has had the labour of a man on whom he could always depend available whenever and wherever required, at what is of the greatest importance in the matter to him, a lower money outlay. It is no use trying to blink the question. The time has come when the price of labour must be readjusted. With produce from 30 to 50 per cent, lower than it was some years ago the farmer cannot continue to pay tho same rate of wages as then, and live. What may be feared is that in tho struggle for readjustment, both employer and employed may suffer unnecessarily, and more especially the latter. It cannot he denied that at the present time much privation exists among the labouring class in Waikato, a large proportion of whom are massed in tho local centres. Many, for months past, have not worked more than half time, and the keen competition for small contracts, taken often at a price that would give less than half the current rate of wages, speaks for itsolf. It is no use, we say, blinking tho question. A change is sotting in of itself, and it is the duty of the press and of all those who have tho interest of the country at heart to suggest and assist in carrying out any scheme which may fairly meet the case without unduly pressing as it threatens to do, and is indeed doing, on the working class. Nothing more betokens the prosperity of a country than a high rate of wages legitimately maintained. General prosperity is experienced. Even the farmer, if wages be high, obtains a better price for his produce and an increased sale, owing to increased consumption. But if it he attempted to artificially maintain a high rate of wages, which the circumstances of the country will not warrant, general distress and depression will naturally follow. Employers will cut clown their labour expenses to a minimum, unci one of two consequences must follow—either men will have ic be content to work half time, or some will get constant work and some little or none. Consumption of all kinds of goods becomes decreased and the depression becomes intensified, none suffering more severely than the working men themselves. This is what has been going on for some time past. If wages fell twenty or twenty-five per cent, two men would find employment where there is not room now for one, and consumption and production would keep pace together, Can the working man not see that it is less against capital he is contending, when he stands out for a higher rate of wages than capital can afford to give, than against tho suffering half of his own class, whom he is driving into the ranks of the unemployed. What, however, wo would like to see in such a case as that of Waikato is. that a large proportion of tho labour employed by the farmer should bo derived from tho members of a class of cottage farmers, and thoirfamilies, scattered largely through the country or farms of from ten to twenty acres. The system we have advocated of attaching tho farm hands to the soil by affording them a cottage and a garden is the first step towards this, and will naturally lead to the extension of settlement, and tho creation of an independent, thrifty, prosperous class of settlers, located on their own small holdings, and not above spending their spare time in working for their wealthier neighbours. There are few settlers but might, without interfering with their own farming arrangements, let portions of their farm, from ten to twenty acres each, on a deferred payment system to such labourers living on their farms ; assist them in building houses, and afford them the use of their teams iu getting such lands into order, taking out the cost in work. This would be to the mutual advantage of employer and employed, giving the one the chance of raising himself from the position of a mer labourer, and affording the other source from which skilled labour could be obtained as required for the use of tho farm. Such men would soon possess themselves of teams and implements, and much of the farmer’s field work would bo clone by them as small contractors. The movement is one, however, which must be taken in hand and initiated by the farmers themselves. Eew of them but have more land than they can profitably use, none but could profitably employ more labour if they could obtain it at a lower rate and upon terms which would entail a lesser money outlay.