Correspondence

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 65, 28 November 1891, Page 2

Correspondence

♦ THE AUSTEALIAN SHEARERS. TO THE KDITOIt OF THE STAR. Sir, — Mr Saxon is evidently very nettled about my statements re Australian shearers, and is anxious to know both sides of the affair, Well, as far as the writer knows, the cause of the dispute arose through the large sheep owners wanting to cut down the price of shearing, and when the men turned nasty (which they were sure to do) over the affair, sooner than give in to their demands they would send for men from New Zealand, or most anywhere they could get them, giving them even a better price than they were giving before the dispute arose. Perhaps Mr Saxon will admit that capital has always ruled labour as the stronger of the two ; what it will do in the future the writer does not profess to predict, and I still most emphatically maintain that those men, knowing as they did that their brother shearers in Australia were trying all that was in their power to have the dispute squarely settled, lacked manly principles. Suppose, for an instance, two boys of unequal size were haying a game of fisticuffs over some matter or other, and another boy joins his forces with the stronger of the two, and between the two of them they vanquished the|smaller boy ; he would be voted a cur of the first water by his boy chums, and if this does not illustrate the Australian difficulty the writer does not know what an illustration is. No doubt the Australian shearers were to blame for going to the extreme measures they have, but it was only after the New Zealanders stepped in to supplant them. Mr Saxon will perhaps say they have a right to go where they please. Very true, but, suppose we were Australians how would we like New Zealanders to step in and spoil all our chances of getting what all of us are striving to get ? % think if they had good, manly, and fair principles they would have sfayed at home. It was not for the scarcity of work they went, for the writer knows several who left good situations to become what is generally known as " blacklegs." I am, &c, True Blue. P.S. — Perhaps Mr Sason will give his version of the difficulty.