The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1892.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3103, 4 June 1892, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1892.

Equal and exact justice to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious fn political.

So contradictory are the statements by cable in reference to General Booth's scheme for introducing to this colony detachments of the pauper population of .London, that it is impossible to surmise what his intentions really tire, or the number of these undesirable people he contemplates adding to our population. The Premier has b6en, as it appears to us, most unjustifiably called to task for the promise which he made of Government assistance to the scheme. In the first place it has boen explained that his promise of immediate assistance applied only to members of the Army now in the colony. This was perfectly justifiable and within the powers of the administration ; but his words cer-. tainly did not imply that the Government would countenance or assist in dumping down in the colony any such vast number of hitherto useless men and women as are spoken of in the cablegrams. The application of the scheme to the

section of the population now with us could do no harm, and niijjht be tlio weans of relieving our Uharitalile Aid Boardsof someof their present liabilities, and making less frequent the visits to our police courts of helpless drunkards whom no term of imprisonment can reform. We can see no objection to the granting of the necessary land to enable the experiment to be made, and the Charitable Aid Boards might contribute a fair sum to relieve themselves of the liability to support the hard cases with whom they must otherwise deal. If the "Army" can induce some of these gentry to work steadily on a farm, they will have a good claim to having performed a nineteenth century miracle. We maintain that the Government should not move one jot beyond what wo have indicated. The submerged tenth are all of very much the same nature—unreliant, lazy and indifferent as to their duty to themselves or their country. They have, no doubt, to a large extent become so through circumstances which they were powerless to control, and are in consequence entitled to the heartfelt sympathy and aid of those more fortunately situated. It ie of course impossible in thp existing itate of the law to prevent General Booth securing land in the colony and sending us any number of those people he May deem fit. So far from the Government being justified in assisting him, it will be necessary and proper for them to promote legislation in order to prevent the carrying out of his scheme. Mr Kidd, one of the members of the Auckland Charitable Aid Board, suggested that some security should be extracted from the Army authorities that none of their importations should become a burden to the ratepayers. This is excellent theory, but as the Army is not a corporate body, there would be nobody in the position to be sued in order to compel the fulfilment of the undertaking. Aβ regards the control by the Army ef their people, it is too improbable to even nope that they "would be able to keep a large percentage of them up to the agreements they might make in the Old Country in order to secure a passage to what, no doubt, would be represented to them as a land of promise. They would inevitably thirst after the life to which they had been accustomed, and find their way to the centres of population, and as surely havo to be dealt with by the Charitable Aid Boards. They would have to be relieved not because they were deserving of sympathy, but for the all powerful reason that a civilised community cannot allow a fellow creature to starve. We can readily forsee that if General Booth's scheme were carried out on anything approaching the scale telegraphed that a system somewhat on the home lines would become a necessity, workhouses would have to be established in the towns to secure that if his people would not work on the farms provided for them they should only eat and be sheltered on condition that they earned ths cost. Why should the country, with its eyes •pen, allow itself to bo brought to this necessity. Our own submerged have almost brought us to it already. As we wrote above by all means give the Army authorities land in order that they may deal with the helpless poration of the population that is already with us, if they are successful in dealing with them it will be quite time enough to entertain the larger scheme. If there were no land in the old country which could be secured for the purpose, and we accepted the hypothesis that the " General's" plan is the only one calculated to bring the tenth to the surface, feelings of humanity might lead us to support the scheme, although convinced at the same time that the country must suffer in consequence. The fact is there is plenty of land procurable, and we

are exceedingly doubtful as to the success of the scheme if attempted. We trust that Parliament during the coming session will make it clearly understoed that this colony shall not be converted into a rubbish heap upon which to shoot the human refuse of the great metropolis.