LEARNING AND EARNING.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 581, 9 August 1909, Page 6

LEARNING AND EARNING.

-■■,-,. THE OUW-HAMMER. ■■" •; , V '' NOTIONS OF A" HANDY MAN, ' ; ':!.•' A ; recenti' ; Dominion'."editorialquoted Dr. Emii jßeibh, to .the effect that no man can .rightly; understand/ a country until he has earned his living in it.- The saying, reminded me'of ; my friend Y. .'who came'.'.. out from Home nine-years ago, and has .ever since ■been- learning .about New'. Zealand, by working 'Jn different , parts' of-"it, for his living.. r _ was' aware ■thaV-.he was. not singular in these-'respects,.' but'knowing -Win •'as a. , man who 'writes, a- little,, and ■ venturing to infer that vheiobserved .a little; , and oven, thought a-little, it was; tohim that : l looked for illustrative proof r or disproof of Dr. Reich's pi oposition'. • I'reconstruct ; here; a ' part of our conversation. •'.'■' - -; : '.V .' ; --i-V / Y: Of course, I don't even yet understaua New Zealand, but I'll give you some recollections, and you may. make what ; you. can of them. ■ Perhaps' the' first thing , to your : purpose was my purchase of a hammer. A cousin of mine, who was a builder, had : written 'to me, -saying:. "If : you can .drive nails, Tcan give you work." I went to him, aid after' some preliminaries; ho 'took ine ■ to. the shop .where, 'under-.'■■;his ■ advice, 1 selected the banunor;-.. It was the hammer of my ideal, the hammer-which,. as ahousenolder in England, I had vainly sought. In other words, it had a practicable claw. The hammers:i'purchasahle' in/England; at' that date:had no claws,-or,; if: they, had, ; 'tho handles broke, .when' you had pulled out a few nails. My cousin said "that every. house.carpenter'in -'the': Old- Countrv caf.fied.'■ a pair of. pincers' in: his -'belt with ' Jiia . hammer, whereas. New Zealand caroenters never used pincers, These admirable effective hammers we're American.''l knew':■ also that the' ; h'ouses ; which I was- going to help nail together were more American ■ than ',-English;! and this national aspect' of the '■' hammers and houses, encouraged a vasrue hope that; 1 had found in/the Manawatu—l should'have said this was' at" I.'had' not ,seon . in--Wellington; 'or;, had -pnly" in ~ the. act of vanishing— : that somethina for which America ! stands . in; the; minds of; the em i'grants of all 'Europe. • I■ wanted, I Vas .they want,' a; land of..:ppportimities, .-.where ■: the fact that a inah Has not .been trained; as an . artisan ■ or : a, farmer is-no'reason why'he' should ndtbe one; where, if': one ..project fails, , ';another .!is'^..ready' to '.be'i ..tried/ aS.'land , ''where,, .a: .-.man. is a ..man, ■if V he's: "willing.: 'to■■; the; Wt ..-, at place. that ■ Emerson [ meant when he •' wrote ,of s a" "Happy town beside the sea,' whoso rixads: lead everywhere ,'to.all." In short, the attraction_ of America, of .Australia, of New Zealand,,is the attraction of-a new country —an' undeveloped,' ' compttratively empty conntry that;calls .for. men, and gives .them a- , .- chance. .America, ■: 'Australia,- t 'New 'Zealand' grow, old- from their, ports and 1 '- ever-widening,-: ''Circles towards their 'backblocks. ■ The circles, geographically'apoakjng, are distorted into' all sorts of shapes,'.one,-radius shortened.by '&ti intervening ■.•.mountain range, ... another Jengihenedf by ;a railwayi Your hopeful naildriver, : with 'his good olaw-hammer, felt -that he was near,the vague and distorted circumference of one of these circles.. ■ He was Boon earning 255. a' week at a trade ■ that was Dew to him, aid he was, able to do 'this because the- Manawatu was a part' of New ■Zeaianii that.had;not'yet.giy)wn old."; -..' .-'■ X: : Arenft. you;-getfcing .on ..rather ■ fast?lYpuconldnt'infer all that.from ;the claw of ■fchV-ha'mmer? ■ ' '■': '.'■'■ .-:■ "'-,'..■./• /

• Y: Weil; I supose "I" was "anticipating," as-'theold-jfashioned Novelists used to "say. I was probably attaching to the hammer a conception of industrial IsW' Zealand which I gradually formed while I was carrying that admirable .tool'.about the cbxintry. At : first, the hammer—apart from its'American'suggestion' and its hint that '-' my not having -.learnt, carpentry, in England might not ■' bo so great a ;handjcap as some would havo ■supposed—was / .rather a discouragement. Such an> efficient'tool seemed to imply-' particularly skilful workmen, and so much • thV less/room for a' "new-chum." There;' I 'of. course, I was wrong. It is not where still is handed down from sire to son] and from masterto apprentice; in a sort 'of apostolic succession of craftsmajisliip, that invention and innovation flourish. > When'one of your Now-. Zealand/.farmers . 'visits' J England, lie looks in vain' for {Vbie double^furroW' plough;, and Inavo just been reading in the "Ashburton Guardian" of the surprise of Mr. Walter Butterick, of that place, when he saw,'amidst the highly-developed intensivo agriculture of Switzerland, the-industrious peasants breaking up the soil with primitive wooden ploughs drawn by bullocks. -I rememb'or a picture in an ■ instructive prize-book: of my. youth showing I a sick man leaning onthe back of/his '-'wife's chair and watching her knit. It ; was -the story_ .of the-invention of. rtho knitting machine. In those days, when knitting-was to every woman a .second nature, like. dress- ; Sng, it was impossible that suph an apparatus ehould.be invented by •a' woman. • ■ "' • X: You and your claw-hammer remind me ef Sir that tie first clearings in tLe'Ndw:Zealandibush were made .with, American axes.'■ ' ' .'. , >; '

Y: Yes, but he infers a political .leaning toiNrards the : country of;\Ruef and Croker. ■ My inference is. a sociological similarity '■ to 'the (Western States, and North-West Canada.arid the Yukon. I. was about-to say, l when Iwae interrupted, that if New Zealand builders lhaven't invented much ■ (though I fancy they haven't: done badly : in, that respect) they have been amateurish -enough—that is;;to eay. intelligent, enough—to ■ take . their own where they found it. Nearly every carpenter's, kit. ■in'-J.my- time .contained, tools from 'Britain, America, and Germany. We never dug'the holes "for the-house-blocks without using a long-handled shovel, a tool of which I had only seen' : in England a single specimen—and. that; was :in the "hands of a man of. an exceptionally inventive turn of mind who had given..up a grocory.business and taken to market gardening. He called it a Gornish shovel. Of .course, however much the industria-Ustructure varies, the same tools are nsed:alj over New Zealand.. ' ■ •X: Do givo your precious ■ tool theory a rest, and tell me how. you mado sure that the,Manawatu. was."new," in your meaning of' the word arid 'that .somo -other places -.weren't..: . ■ ..'. / ' ,

Y: Well, you sec, when..one'boss had no moro work for me, I, tried another, and when I couldn't get work'in one town I moved on. I.could show;you buildings that I helped to. gut up in Foilding, Palinorston, • Kongo tea. [unterville, Wanganui, New Plymouth, and two or three smaller places. My wages werenot always,the same. I made a pretty regular/ 7s;> a day at Palmerston tor several months, and once I worked by contract and Diade Os. a: day. That was about the, full" wage for a competent,journeyman, but at I'eflding, when I first, went there, Bs. was the' full wage. 1 believe.wages (also rents and prices) are higher now. I found that a "handy man," or a'"bush carpenter," as they used to call me, could do.hotter at Feilding or. Palraerston than 'at any of the other, places I .tried.' '. Those, two towns were, going ahead 'fast, .but that wasn't the only.'reason why they suited mo, and others like me. There were no trades unions among the carpenters in the Manawatu when I went there, and I found that unionism at. WanganuiL.aiid New Plymouth looked with a raihfer-effective disfavour upon the "handy man," although, oven- there, he hadn't at that time become the "under-rate worker," who mustn't drive n.nail until he has received.a "permit." Of course, I couldn't go back to carpentering in the Manawatu to-day. The union would try to block me with this permit scheme, and would probably • succeed. Organised labour lias no place for the "handy man." A "new country is-a country without trades unions. X: And how much of New Zealand is still : "now"? :. : Y: I don't know.> Much'les3 than when I was o bush carpenter. A few months ago a friend ;of mine told mo of a young fellow who had got into the trade pretty much as I did,!and was doing well as a builder in the hack-biocks. .My friend said, "He stays there so as not to be bothered with the Arbitration Court and the inspectors and all that." You, my dear X, on hearing that Bucli an .uncivilised region could still be found in this advanced and happy land would, perhaps, havo been sorry. , I wasn't. ■ X: Couldn't 'you have learnt all you have told me. without actually working as a caTcenter '' • i ■ ■ ■ • ■ '" ' Y: I might have leaimt it, but.'l shouldn't know'.it...'..--.'.:■ .'. ••,' "•■■'■"•: '■-." '.-■;■' ; -..■■■,. ■