Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-04-15
extent II is government OF, b., and
for wage earners.


OF how in the course of events and the
increase in knowledge and civilization,
the under dog became the upper dog.
The case of New South Wales Is pos
sibly the most pronounced type Of the
evolution which has been in operation
in all the Australian dominions.
Industrial development in New South
Wales has sharp line of division in
its history, and the present industrial
system is very different from that of
the past. Uneconomic as were the be-
ginnings of industry in the colony I'M
der the handicap of the convict-trans-
portation system, some of their effects
remain today, and they need to be re-
called for the lessons in their history.
Operated as 1t was as a mere penal
that some day it might be colony Of
another kind, there was little room for
the unhampered operation of Industrial
| forces in their natural channels and II
industry now is on another plane the
| credit is even greater because of the
wretched inception of it. 1t was long
before the authorities would recognize
| that the laborer had rights to anything
| beyond bare living. This might be
understood as long as the great ma
| jority of the laborers were emancipat-
ed convicts, but the same ideas DOM
mated the policy Of the authorities long
after the free population began to null
tipy. The spirit of the government
was that of parental interference in ev-
cry concern of social life. The pater-
nalism of today is altogether a diff
ferent thing. The governor fixed the
price and regulated the quality of pro-
visions to be sold in the colony. He
made grants of land and in Sydney re-
quired those who had grants to erect
fine buildings on them. He served out
lands, cattle and provisions to his sub
jects like a general merchant. He
regulated tolls, ferries and municipal
affairs. He gathered together the or
phans of the colony and supported
them out of the custom-house receipts.
To the laborer he assigned a fixed
daily wage, and he regulated the price
of the meat and the bread which the
laborer must buy. The free colonist
was looked upon as an intruder, and he
was to be regulated as carefully as pos
sible. At first the government was the
only employer of labor. AS years went
on an increasing number of men whose
sentences had expired came into the
labor market, and these, with the SOL
diers who decided to stay in the colony,
retired officers, civilians in the employ
of the government and the free immi-
grants who had come to the settle
ment, formed the industrial population.
AS this element grew it became neces-
sary to make laws regulating the re-
lations between employers and the free
employed.
THE laws affecting labor were all
conceived in the spirit of the primal
curse, which designated work a pun
ishment, the life of man warfare and
his time here below a probation to be
spent in WEAKNESS and sorrow. The
general orders issued during the first
thirty years were sufficiently harsh and
callous even when framed with special
reference to the bond population, but
they were scarcely more considerable
when they sought to regulate free la.
Dor. A days work for stacking and
carrying grain was fixed at from
o'clock in the morning until 7 o'clock
at night, less three hours for food and
rest. The wages paid for various
classes of labor were arbitrarily de-
termined. Should laborer take or
demand more than the regular rates, or
refuse to work for such wages, he was
to be set in the stock for two days and
one night for the first offense and for
second to undergo a penalty of three
months hard labor. No person was al
lowed to take work unless he could, if
freeman, produce his certificate, or,
if bondman, his ticket of leave. For
the infringement Of this regulation the
penalty for the employer was a fine,
and for paying more than the regulated
rates, he was liable to be imprisoned
for ten days, in addition to the fine.
The harboring of runaway apprentice
involved six months hard labor to a
freeman, and 100 lashes with other
punishment, to prisoner. AS the
Trainer Of the laws, the governor had
always before him the fact that the en-
ployer was often little better than the
laborer, both as rule belonging to the
emancipist class and both deserving of
similar punishment for breaches of the
labor regulations"
The above is from an official publ
cation which deals with those times. |
Free labor got but three shillings a
day for field labor, and out of that |
had to supply their own food and !
clothing. This form of regulation by |
law was strictly in accordance with the |
ideas of the times, the object being to |
insure to settlers a supply of cheap |
labor, and incidentally to protect the |
laborer against fraud. It's principal eff
feet, however, was to prevent the labor
er from recovering in the courts a |
greater price for his labor than was
in the schedule, whatever his
contract with bic on, p1oyar ,,,;ob@ H.