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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 75

[introduction]

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Note.—All the Figures which follow are taken from the Public Records.

How to improve the position of the great mass of workers has been the study of my lifetime, for, like other thinkers, I have seen that the only way of effecting any real lasting social improvement is by uplifting the great army of wage-earners.

In the nature of things, in every community, the vast preponderance of the people must be wage-earners. No matter what circumstances may arise, very few can be directors. In the army and navy the officers are few, the men are many. So it is in the industrial army; the leaders must be few in number, the workers many.

This being so, how important it is to us all to do everything in our power to improve the condition of the wage-earners, to elevate and dignify labour. The old Baronial days, when the workers were little better off than slaves working for the sole benefit of a few nobles, are, thank God, gone for ever; the conditions are altered we must adapt ourselves to them, and do all that we can to give the wage-earners a better chance, for it is only as they prosper that the trading and professional classes can share in the benefit.

Recognising these facts, when the present Ministry took office I was quite disposed to give them what little support lay in my power. I was not satisfied with the last administration, and hoped the new party would do better, but as time passed on, their reckless, thoughtless—I had almost said ignorant—legislation amazed me, as it has many others. The want of far-seeing judgment, and of thoughful consideration, displayed in such Acts as the Workmen's and Contractors' Liens Act, the Factories Act, the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, Masters and Apprentices Act, and numerous others, prove that they are wanting in all the great qualities that go to make up statesmen.

In order to ascertain what has been the effect of this labour legislation, I have gone through the statistics of the colony for the last 12 years, and give the result in the following tables. They are very eloquent, and require little explanation from me:—