The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25,1887. WORK ON THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1645, 25 August 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1887. WORK ON THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

A telegram appearei m most of the morning journals yesterday — especially m those of Oppositien proclivitiesstating that large numbers of navvies and other hard working men continued to flock to the Midland railway works on the West Coast, looking for work on the railway line, and were unable to get any, and it was further alleged that the men had been induced to take the step through seeing the advertisements io the papers, stating that pick and shovel men were wanted on the railway. From a Press Association telegram transmitted from Greymouth, it would seem that some papers had insinuated that there was a disposition on the part of the contractors to reduce the rate of wages. Prompt action on McKeone, Robinson and Avigdor, led to the transmission of the telegram, which rnns thus : — " In consequence ot certain remarks m the morning paper regarding the crowded state of the labor market, and the number of unemployed on the line, Mr Penfold, ot Messrs McKeone, Robinson, and Avigdor, interviewed the editor to satisfy him that the Company have not interfered with the rate of wages, either directly or indirectly, and that, as for the oveiorowding of men on the line, they have done all m their power to prevent men coming here when there was no work for them, and had sent information through the Press that Soo men were employed on the line, and that at present there was not room for any more, nor would there be until fresh contracts were let. Besides, all their calculations, he said, are based qpon the rate of current wages io the colony, and they have no desire to see them lowered." We are glad that the contractors have so promptly refuted .the slander which, if allowed to remain uncontradicted a single day, would most certainly hare had the effect of prejudicing the line m the minds of the people. The manifesto issued by the contractors is so straightforward and complete, that it cannot fail to dispel any lurking suspicion on the part of the working men, that the contractors had some intention of reducing the rate of wages. We can corroborate what Mr Penfold, on behalf of the contractors, stated—that they had done all they could to prevent men coming there under the impression that they could obtain work — for we have seen m our exchanges a warning that there was no opening, the labor market there being glutted, and this warning we helped to disseminate by reproducing it m our own columns. We think that it would have been more creditable to the Press generally if those papers, which were only too glad to give publicly to tbe accusations, had shown an equal alacrity m publishing the contractors " denial of the truth." We notice that some papers which make a greatparade of their journalistic honesty have failed to do so so.