AUSTRALIAN WORKING MEN.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1204, 6 December 1882, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN WORKING MEN.

The Spectator of 6th of Peptember, having stated that the Australian prosperous working men, though retaining a singular power of self-restraint whilst at work, were apt to waste their whole earnings in bouts of intermittent drinking. Mr Murray Smith addressed the following letter to the editor of the journal in question, which appears in the Spectator of 1 6th September : — « Sir, — In your interesting article on the moral Effects of Wealth and Poverty,' there is a statement with regard to the working classes of Australia which is not applicable, at any rate, to their present position and habit of life. You say in Australia prosperous work- , men, though retaining a singular power of self-restraint while at work, are apt to waste their whole earnings in bouts of intermittent drinking." T am aware that this is a prevalent impression, but it /is derived from an experience of oflier times and different circumstances from those which now exists. In the

early days of the colony in which 1 have resided, the wild licence of the gold diggings and the deadly monotony of pastoral life, the absence of healthy and attractive forms of amusement, and probably also the difficulty of finding investment for small savings, combined to foster a spirt of recklessness, and to alternate periods of hard and depressing labor with furious debauch. This is no longer the case, Here and there, perhaps, there survives a fossil specimen of an old "station hand," without education, without the desire to improve his condition, whose only notion of pleasure, when he has received his yearly wages, is to drink himself at quickly as pos- ; sible into a state of imbecility at the nearest grog shop. But he is no longer the type, in Victoria, even j of a small class. The working man avails himself freely of the many inducements to save held out to him by the Government and private institutions; and he is so far from regarding drinking with favor that agitation, vehemently carried on, has not succeeded in obtaining the sanction of the legislature to the opening of the publichouses on Sunday. So far as we can judge, the native Australian is not likely, -whatever faults he may possess, to indulge in immoderate drinking. Harshness of climate, inanity of mind misery of condition, want of receation, strike me as being the great cause of this mischief; and in these respects the working classes of Victoria are singularly fortune.