ROUND NEW ZEALAND.
[By our Travelling Rcpo\ter.)
UROGDEX’.S MARLBOROUGH XAVVIE9. Of course, you have all heard about Brogdeu and his navvies, and their disagreement with their bread and butter ; bow Mrs Grundy has takea the matter up, and held public meetings ; the introduction of the truck system here, and many things beside both true and false, 'i he facts are as follow Some 120 men were landed here from Wellington by steamer to work for the Messrs Brogdeu in the c nstruction of the Fictou and Blenheim Railway, to be paid at the rate of 6s per day of nine hours’ work. The rate of wages and time of labor were fixed in Wellington by mutual agreement after the arrival of the immigrants by the Schiehallion. The terms of their agreement before having England wcie to work for the Messrs Brogdeu two years for a not less wage than os the day of ten hours ; the rate of wages to be determined from time to time by the Governor or some person he might appoint. One-lifih of their earnings were to be deducted weekly or on pay-days to repay the cost of their passage and the outfits given them. It was further taken into consideration by the firm that these men, landed in a strange place, and in most cases not 1 possessed of a stiver, would want something to eat and drink and places to Jive and sleep in ; that the storekeepers here would be chary of trusting them, and that the residents would not inconvenience themselves to provide them with lodgings. Under these circumstances, the firm purchased a lot of stores, hired a storeman, and gave the men working for them provisions at current PiotoH rates on credit, the cost of such stores to be deducted from their wages with their instalment of other indebtedness on paydays ; had houses built for them to dwell in, and hired all the available empty tenements iu the town. Those who fortunately bad money had no occasion to crave further assistance from their employers than that already afforded them, and could obtain their goods where convenient or desirable. Hence the origin of the truck shop. The strike arose something in this manner. The arrivals app ar to have entertained an inflated idea of the value of their services, and wanted in consequence to be paid wet or dry—work or play—and, considering that they were also underpaid, determined to do as little work as possible for the money stipulated to be paid them. Old colonists looked ou amused, and wondered how long it could last, and some scrupled not to declare that the work paid sx shillings for was not worth half the money. New management was then introduced ; the men informed they would he paid when, they U'orhe j , and only then, when they struck en masse. Contract work was then offered them at prices which they laughed at, but which have since been taken by sub contractors, who appear to thrive at tbe prices given. In a small town like this, a hundred men thrown suddenly out of work and without means, threatened to be a burden on the inh i bit ants, who called a public meeting to consider what should be done ; but not content with stopping here entered into the relationship subsisting between the employers and the employed. Although the avoidance of such a course of action under the peculiar circumstance? would have been difficult, it has most probably had no beneficial effect. The Pietou people, however, gave food to those men who wanted it. It would have been better, and perhaps more effectual, had they done this alone—their expressing an opinion that the men were ill-treated, has doubtless confirmed the conviction in the men’s minds that they actually were. But the above narration of indisputable facts entirely rebuts such a presumption. Some of the men have gone away, others have taken contract work, many talk of leaving the d : £- trict, some have gone to work for other employers, and some refuse to work f r subcontractors, as by so doing they' will have to gradually lessen their indebtedness to their exporters. Sub-contractors employing these men have to deduct from their earnings one-fifth for this purpose. Now to many of these men’s wives in Euglan 1 half pay, or so much per week, is paid weekly—the men supposed to be at work—while in some cases their wives and families have been brought out to join them, at the expense of the contractors. Your readers will thus obsei ve the case is complex, oue difficult to decide on as to the course to be adopted—iufact a problem I shall not attempt to solve. A newspaper correspondent has no right to have, or at least express any opin'ou: only narrates wh t he sees and hears. There is a dearth of plant here, the railway has not yefc fairly started, and all the men employed at the present time do not exceed 150 in number. I shall give current rates of prices and other data iu my next epistle, as this has been already too diffuse. For the satisfaction of him of “clock” and Waikouaiti repute, I may inform him that rails 30Ibs to tbe yard, and a line imperfectly balks'e l , will suit all the requirements of this district for many years to come. He had better attend to the state of the “kinc” and to the interests of his pastoral supporters than start iu his dotage as a C. E. Let my friend of the Xew Zealand Herald get a pboto of some sort, and give us this illustrious rejected Motueka man’s likeness among the other great and noble men of New Zealand.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18721017.2.18
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Evening Star, Issue 3015, 17 October 1872, Page 4
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955ROUND NEW ZEALAND. Evening Star, Issue 3015, 17 October 1872, Page 4
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