STRIKES IN WELLINGTON.

Evening Star, Issue 3197, 20 May 1873, Page 3

STRIKES IN WELLINGTON.

Strikes and rumors of strikes are becoming the order of the day. Yesterday (Independent, 12th) morning reports -were rife that the laboring population of the city bad made an unanimous demand for 10s a day, and that the works at the reservoir, the Hott railway, and the laying of the street pipes had come to a stands ill. To some extent the gossip was correct, about twenty of the men engaged in laying the water mains having laid down their tools; but the men in the ejpploy of the Corporation. at the reservoir, who receive 8s a day, had no cause for complaint, and it turned out that the statement m their regard was a little piece of strategy, in which the wish of the discontented hands stood in the relation of father to the thought. The strike in reality was confined to about twenty of the pipe track hands, who considered 7» a day too small a reward for their labor in these prosperous times. The malcontents, however, only form about half the number of the bands employed, and as their exaggerated notions of the value of their services were not supported by their more sensible confreres, the “strike” was a failure. The rate paid by the contractors is 7s a-day, and though the men have every •right to sell their labor at the highest price it will command, there is always a reasonable bound which it is unwise to go beyond Many branches of trade could be instanced in which the working men must possess considerable skill and fair educational attainments to fit them for their positions. They receive 10s a-day, and surely the 7» of the Jjibprtr heap * (*ir proportion to the 10s of

the skilled artisan. A proper perception of the bearings of the question seems to havt prevailed amongst the majority of the men themselves, and no doubt those who rashlj refused to go to work will take a fair viev of the matter and resume operations during the (lay. The rumor of the men on the Huti railway having struck also proved to be in correct. '■ he same paper of the 14th says : Ipe laborers’ strike was as short as it was insigniticant. The plain fact is, there was no reasonable ground for a resort to extreme proceedings, and though we have no desire to attribute the dem nd for increased wages to anything but a sincere belief on the part of the men that they are fairly entitled to shat* the advantage which the present prosperity has placed within the reach of all the other classes, still there does seem to have been a disposition on the part of a few of the bands merely to put to the test the strength of mind of their employer.-. This intent is manifested in the circumstance that those who took upon themselves to occupy the position of “ leaders ’ —the blatant deceivers who lead the innocent ones into erroneous ways—turned to their work yesterday morning when they found the contractors had no thought of giving way. A few of those who had blindly ■followed their lead still hold out for the increased rate of pay, but the moral taught by the proceedings of the last day or two suggests that they should follow the example of the wily ones in what is sensible and return to their work. If they cannot see now how they have been beguiled they must be naturally very obtuse.