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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1491, 15 May 1873, Page 2

Sir— Having read the report of pro r ceedings at a public meeting lately held in Greymouth in condemnation of the truck system, and having been informed by a person who was present on the, occasion that my. name was made, use of as one of the contractors on the Arnold and Ahaura road guilty of such, I beg' permission, as briefly as possible; to state a few incoptestible facts, which I trust those ignorant of both sides of the question will take into account before arriving at hasty con-* elusions. : ,In the first place ; l wish to record my absolute abhorrence of what I understand the truck system, to be, ".That, ot env ploying 'gangs of men, compelling' them to purchase topis, and provisions at exorbi- r tant pricesat the store bn the wofcks, and when their wages shall have equalled their store /account, discharging, <ithem, purchasing' the tools they had bought of' me and re-selling them to a fresh, gang at a higher rate." 1 Such a system I ]have' not, or would ever think of practising ; bii t this I do — I keep' ! a ; store ;on the works at which . the men work-' ing for ' rile carij if they chose, purchase a good or fair class of articles in some cases below ithe local 1 current rates ; for instance, in Ahaura -the 4lb loaf is 3 s 6d,; beef was, when I commenced here, 6d to 9d per lb ; I supply the men- with beef at 6d per lb all-round ; ; -the. 4lb : loaf, Is 3d; tea, 3s. 6d ; B.C: sugar, 7d ; cheese; Is to Is 3d; potatoes, 12s per 1001 b; onions, 4d ; and other necessaries in, like proportion., : I herewith enclose you the baker's /bill," rby, which you wDI see the price I paid for bread was not 9d, as a noted speaker said at the truck meeting, but 13£cL> I have now an oven 'and baker of my own, and as I also have a first-class weighing inachine in the store, it will be as much, the men's own fault as mine should they not get a 41b loaf i I have told the men repeatedly- they could get their ■stores wherever they could, deal tombst advantage, and to enable them to 4p so not only have they been paid fortnightly, 'but advanced money when j they required it before being due to .tnemj I have, since I started here, put on 94 men, at least one- third of whbrii had tools 1 of their own when engaged ; of the itatal number I have, 'to the present, time, discharged, 13, for the sole reason that r ihey were unable or unwilling to do a fairway's work. : ; . I have from the. commencement madeit a rule not to purchase.iitools fromitten whom I had discharged. ■ : And regarding th& question 1 of compelling men to provide their own tools, I think, sir, in tßis locali'tyj the precedent was established on the first General Government road works that between .Reef ton and Square Tbwln — on which the men employed by the Government were provided with tools, and their price (the same as mine) deduoted from, the men's pay, and hence carried out by, I believe^ all the contractor % on the Arnold and Ahaura road against whom with others I tendered. ■'.'..'■'" ; ' Regarding : the . propriety (disregarding economy and convenience to the men) of keeping a store 'on a contract such as mine I adduce the following ; i^cts; :— When leaving Grey mouth, I ,proyj(ied myself with a small stock of tools and 'provisions!,' knowing the difficulties men, wc-uld have to encounter who were ..short of money, as they must have supplied themselves, from the Ahaura Township, to which place, on account of the river intervening,: there is a toll of Is each way. Itiw'as well 1-was so provided, for the first day I was literally besieged with applicants seeking employment, most of whom were without an implement of any description, provisions, or riioriey, and, in some; instances without tent or blanket. .Fearing I might judge wrong of a man's appjearance, I refused none, but gave all a: fair trial, and when discharging any, paid wages 11s per day, although when! engaged, but with one or two exceptions, that inquiry wasnot made. Now to sjbo w, you that some of the men I employed were not worth even their rations toime, I felt bound to discharge them before being clear of debt (of course they t had been provided by me with tools and provisions). Among the list of discharged men I see the names" of two who were speakers at the late ! meet^ig,. the |first who seems to haye taken aleading part, -. J; ' H, Graham. This ; ;irian : recom-. mended iimself- to me at Grey-, mouth as an efficient working ganger, ] employed him at the rate of 12s per day. wet or dry, and when on the ground gave .him ten men under his charge, but: l soon found he would, not suit_jne,..-and, after the lapse of . five . daysj paid him oft. He, purchased at iriy store one axe, 10s. The^ man Leslie, was objected io^furst by; one of riiy ganger's; and, secondly^ by another as being unable tp.do a fair day's ''work ; he purchased a pick and shovel, arid,' when settled with, was enraged because I would not buy them back from him. His time was five days ; he said, in the presence of others now on the work, that he was well pleased with the prices 'charged' at my store, and, as all. the men-are sup*plied with pass or score books, he could, by producing his at the meeting, have shown whai my prices are. Seeing who were 4 th6 principal movers in the preserit agitation, I would have treated any remarks . they made with' silent contempt, but they seem to have •made a. favorable impression on others more worthy of notice, , and : who it seema are anxious to sound the matter to find out the true state of . things ; hence the' reason why I thus' trespass. Shoxild the committee, or any of them (the two men I discharged excepted) come up "here, I shall feel most Happy to 1 allow'tliem to examine my time; land .stbre books, by which they could form more accurate conclusioris th^ii, those they would be apt to draw from statements made by men having b.een tried and found wanting. <■':>■ lam, ifce^i, . -.■:. ■: ' '■'". "■'• : ' - . Edward BuTißit; ; Section No; : 6, : ' : >l jl :•-• Arnold and Ahaura Road, ' i; J r May 12.