The Future Prosperity of the Colony. 353 



physical strength and powers of endurance, are incapable 

 of sustained effort for long periods. Many of them 

 are absolute malingerers, and not having the virtue of 

 thrift, generally dissipate their earnings, which in some 

 cases are large, after their return to town, or to their 

 native villages. Quite as much at fault, however, 

 are those who employ them and rob them of the wages 

 for which they have worked ; and taking both sides of 

 the question, that of the inefficient and unwilling 

 labourer on the one hand and the dishonest em- 

 ployer on the other, the balance appears to be equal. 

 As in other human affairs the good and bad suffer alike, 

 and one party pays for the delinquencies of the other. 

 This is a state of matters which all can and should assist 

 to improve. Several Companies and individuals do take 

 care to secure reliable hands and to induce them to 

 return to the same employment, after each period of 

 service followed by its period of rest has expired. The 

 concentration of the registration and engagement of 

 labourers, by having one single agency in each distri6l, 

 will tend greatly to ameliorate matters and afford pro- 

 teftion both to the labourer and employer. It seems 

 scarcely to be a subjeft which can legitimately engage 

 the attention of the Executive, bat to be more within 

 the province of the public itself, which can by a con- 

 sensus of opinion establish its own medium of registration 

 and engagement of labour in addition to the registration 

 exa6led by the Government. It has already been pointed 

 out that if the labouring classes only realised their power, 

 were thrifty, and had the faculty of working in combi- 

 nation under the leadership of one of themselves, 

 they would rapidly acquire not only most of the wealth 



