The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. THURSDAY, APRIL 21,1802.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3084, 21 April 1892, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. THURSDAY, APRIL 21,1802.

We should imagine that by this time, the rank and tile of the labour army, if not their leaders, will have come to the conclusion that the policy they have hitherto pursued, of intimidating capital and blocking private enterprise, is not exactly the one best calculated to promote the welfare of themselves . and their families. All along the line, the industrial classes have acted as though it were the bounden duty and the necessity of all who had the command of capital, to provide them with employment, even if the terms under which they consented to work were never so harassing and unprofitable to the employer. The fact that this " policy," if it may be so dignified, could only end in disaster and entail additional hardship upon themselves, was either wholly lost sight of or purposely kept back by their fatuous leaders. By this time their eyes must be opened. The ominous fact, that throughout the Australian colonies, where every natural facility exists for the profit- j able employment of at least ten times the present population, the number of unemployed persons is steadily upon the increase, is one full of grave significance. The question naturally arises, why should so many men be idle. Land is cheap and readily obtainable under the most liberal terms. Money is plentiful where the security is good and there is the least prospect of a fair return. The answer is simple. People possessed of—or what is more common in the colonies—having the command of means, have become afraid to invest. No enterprise which depends for its success upon the employment of much manual labour is safe from disaster. No matter how profitable to master and man an undertaking may be, there is no certainty under the" new conditions, which surround the. labour question, that the whole affair may not stop some fine morning and perhaps through some trade disputes, which have occurred at some remote place. The consequence of such a standing menace to individual enterprise has been a gradual but sure contraction of industrial energy, with a corresponding increase in the numbers of unemployed workers. In this colony tho number of persons out of work at any one time has never been very large. This is probably due to the steady exodus of able-bodied men, who have left in the direction of the other Australian colonies, whevo at that time work was more plentiful. Now, however, the unemployed difficulty in New South Wales and Victoria is becoming a very serious matter. Relief works on a large scale an-> being projected in the 1 former colony, and the oxtraor-

dinary, albeit humiliating', spectacle is exhibited in a now country of hundreds of able-bodied men, who are described as " haggard, ragged and bootless," being daily fed with daily rations of soup and bread. Yet in the face of all this, the Labour members in the New South Wales Parliament appear to bo just as dogged in their opposition to privato enterprise a? over. Their own salaries are secure, their own families are well fed, and this apparently is as far as they can see. Quite recently tho Premier of New South Wales, in replying to a deputation from the unemployed, who ask9d for the starting of relief works, so that worthy men and their families might be kept from starvation, took occasion to administer a sharp rebuke to the Labour members in Parliament for their unreasoning hostility towards the undertaking of legitimate works by private enterprise. Mr Dibbs pointed out that, while the Government were compelled to curtail public works by want of funds, private investors were being peremptorily warned off from enterprises, which would legitimately employ tho people, by the very men who were supposed to specially represent the interests of labour. The Government was admittedly unable, for want of money, to proceed with several of the public works to which it stands committed.