Bushfellers Meeting

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 27, 19 August 1890, Page 2

Bushfellers Meeting

The Foresters' Hall was crowded on Saturday evening last for the above meeting, the audience being mostly composed of the laboring classes. Mr T. Bastiu was voted to the chair, and explained the object of the meeting. He considered the time had come when the bu ;hfellers should form a Union, as at present the pikes at which bush contracts were taken were too low for the working man to make anything like decent wages. Mr Harris spoke to the same effect, and said that if the men would now combine it would put a stop to the starvation prices that were now being paid. He instanced several cases where men had slaved 10 to 12 hours per day, and then after paying the " tucker " bill had hardly any money left. « Mr Beading sympathised with the object of the meeting, and although bushfelling was not, strictly speaking, a trade yet it was quite as important as one, especially in a new country like New Zealand. It was both laborious and dangerous, and he thought it was the most badly paid of any occupation. The chairman informed the meeting that he was a member of the Palmerston branch of the Knights of Labor, and read the declaration and principle of that order. He defended the income and single tax principle, and explained his objection (in answer to a question by Mr H. Ashworth) to eight hours for a day's labor. Mr Harris proposed, and Mr Swallow seconded, That a Union be formed for this district, to be called " The Manchester Bushman's Union." Mr H. Ashworth proposed, and Mr J. Turner seconded, as an amendment, That this meeting is of opinion that a branch of the Knights of Labor be established in Feilding. The amendment was put and lost, and the original motion carried. About 40 persons joined the Union in the room. The chairman stated that as there were other trades in Feilding district that could not come under the heading of bushfallers he would convene .a meeting shortly to form a branch of the Knights of Labor, and would endeavor to get delegates to forward the movement. The meeting, he stated, would be duly advertised in the Star. The usual vote of thanks was voted to the chair and the meeting adjourned to the 30th instant. The members held a meeting afterwards to draw up rules, election of officers, &c, when the following committee was appointed pro tern : — Messrs H. Keightly (chairman), C. Keightly (secretary and treasurer), Harris, Hickford, Burrows, Swallow, Menzies, J. Grice, W. Belfit, J. Clark, Tennent, W. Brown, and Earnshaw.