AUCKLAND COMPOSITORS.

Evening Star, Issue 3866, 15 July 1875, Page 3

AUCKLAND COMPOSITORS.

To the Editor.

Sir, —Your " own 1 ' at Auckland telegraphed, as appears in your issue yesterday, statiug that Mr Allan Wright, on behalf of the Otago Typographical Association, repudiated all connection with the remarks made by Mr Le Giove as to the condition of th» trade in Auckland, and also as to the status of compositors in that portion of the North Island. Now, having worked for several years in Auckland, I am in a position to affirm that the statements made by Mr Le Grove are in the main true; mi 1 although I do not feel disposed to indulge in the strong language used by the Secretary of our Association, I may say that the trade in Vuckland has always been in a deplorable condition. I can assign two reasons for this state of things : —ln the fiist place, the selfish and grasping disposition the masterptiutei s have displayed towards their employes ; and, in the next, the utter want of manly spirit evineod by the men. There is this, however, to lie said in favor of the employers : that when ~nd w;is in a prosperous state the compositors labored undwr the delusion that they jould do as they liked, and their bearing towards those who gave them employment was arrogant in the extreme. I may instance the fnct that on many occasions in tiie 'Herald' .>rhce, out of a companionship of fifteen men uiify five have turned up to work to get out an eig'it-paged paper ; and I may also say that ths champion of the Auckland compositors, who served his apprentice hip under Mr W. C. Wilson, the proprietor of the ' Herald,' was conspicuous by his absence on the above-men-tioned occasions.

In conclusion. I will merely remark that with the knowledge which I, in common with other members of the trade, possess of the compositors Auckland has cast forth upon other portions of the Colony, • consider it would have been more judicious on the part of Mr Allan Wright to have kept silent. As he has a proclivity for indulgiog in stale quotations, I would recommend him for the future to " Let sleeping dogs lie."—l am, &c, Compositor. Dunedin, July 15.