SHEARERS.
During the last two or three years the sheepowners in different parts of the colony—particularly those in Southland and Marlborough—have attempted to bring about a reduction in the rate of wages paid to shearers, and there are already indications that this little contest between capi’al and labor will be renewed during the approaching season. In Marlborough the shearers have given notice that they will not submit to a reduction in wages proposed by the owners, and it is possible the dispute may assume very serious dimensions. The price hitherto paid in that particular district has been 17s 6d a hundred, but the owners, on the ground that they have had a succession of bad seasons, submit that the price should be reduced to 15s. They appear to have lost sight ol the logical deduction, that if wages were reduced in bad seasons they should be raised in good ones, but the men realised at once that if the reduction were made it would be a permanent one, and they have combined —very properly we think —to resist the alteration. We are aware that even at 15s a hundred some specially expert shearers could manage to make or a week during the season, but it should be remembered, and taken info account, that the employment is of a very fugitive and laborious character. When we consider the long and expensive journeys these men have often to make to reach the sheds, the privations experienced, often destroying the very best constitutions, and the fact that a shearer is a skilled artizan, the price paid during recent years has not been excessive. It is not often we have to defend, or e\en excuse, trade unions, but in this case we are compelled to think that the men, so long as they act in a fair and reasonable manner, will be justified in co-operating for mutual protection. We trust, however, that the owners will not insist upon the proposals they have made but will recognise the wisdom and justice of paying a fair wage for the labor performed.— Mail.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1326, 27 August 1886, Page 3
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346SHEARERS. Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1326, 27 August 1886, Page 3
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