THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1564, 9 August 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1873.

The sentiments of the Scotch song which contains the line "Gin a body kiss a body, need' a body cry," might be; easily and appropriately parodied as a skit upon the false fuss which is at present being made by busy-bodies about a business which affects principally the two parties concerned-^the' contractor : for the construction, of the. Grey mouth railway and the men practically employed in the work of construction/ Because a number of hard-working men agree in estimating their labor,, at a, certain value, and in demanding. its recompense from their employerY or relinquishing his employment, some people, seem tq think that the community: must' be shaken' to its centre, thai the h Press' should 'agitate, that the police, should; congregate, and that the Resident Magistrate should leave the Bench 'arid discourse' morals to men who may be quite as capable as he is of realising their position ! ,' and who, possessing any acquaintance! with i thei law, ought to ~knowf- as they apparently do know, that, it if -their' duty to preserve ; the peace. ,In the^ absence of theatrical entertainments, and with' the strong local affection /for the . performance of melodrama, a little social excitement of this sort may Vbe ' excusable, but it must, be estimated at its 'proper value — as playacting; nor should the simple question of what constitutes a fair day's wage fora fair. day's; work disturb others than those whom it immediately concerns. Upon some sensitive subjects the word "strike" seems to have as much effect as excessive ! indulgence in beer of the same name, and because' honest men ' meet together in localities ' ; where > the ; only cover is ; the canopy of heaven, and where there is no puWi(^house sign,, the police assume an air; of enormous .wisdom, and the Bench perpetrates enormous folly. Suppose the soft-goods men of the town, the printers, .. or the bargees were to consider them-' selves under-paid, and to put their

more or-; less intelligent heads together for the purpose of discussing the question of their personal income and expenditure, would it be necessary to create all this fuss ? And, if it would not, may it be asked what difference there is between the two classes of men that in the one case they should be left to work out their own destiny, and that in the other they should be looked upon ao "suspects." It is a poor compliment to the class of meu who have, under harder circumstances, pioneered this country, and made it what it is, and it will be a sorry exception from the even tenor of their way if any one or number of them do more than what is meant by the word "strike," as applied to a cessation of relations between employer and employed. The extent of the fussy disposition which has been locally displayed is sufficiently well known. But it may be information to people to be told how the circumstances have been exaggerated elsewhere. We find, for instance, that Hokitika has not been left in an unprotected state by the withdrawal of the local police, and that, although men here, actually met together, as men have a perfect rijht to do, "there was no disturbance." The Westland Register states this :-r" We are informed that the fears entertained of a riot taking place, at Greymouth, consequent on the recent strike, are groundless. At all events, no application ' for additional police assistaiice has heen made." And the West Coast Times has the following ;— "A private telegram was received in town from Greymouth yesterday to the effect that those of Mr Hungerford's navvies who refused to accept 10s per day had gone down the line and compelled the other men to knock off work. They afterwards held an open-air meeting opposite the gas works, but there was no dtstrwbcwice." To those who are apu in associating ideas,- the selection of the vicinity of the "gas-works" may, perhaps, suggest itself as being injudicious on the part' of those who spoke at' this meeting, implying a tendency to " gas," of which they were not guilty, but the implication that there is any connection between "open air" and "disturbance" cannot recommend itself to the sense of the most ungentle. What happens to be particularly desiderated in this matter is more open air and less public-house. : There are some among the men themselves who seem to think that the Press should rush to their rescue, and, by intuition, discover and publish the causes of their complaints. Unfortunately the faculty of knowing what is passing 'in other persons' minds is limited, and, so far as the Press is concerned, it can only deal with what, is publicly stated or expressed in writing. This should account for the reticence which has been observed regarding a matter upon which men have only been demonstrative within the last twelve hours, or are only to be so when they meet at the .Volunteer Hall this evening. The complaint of a correspondent to whose letter we have already referred, and who "cannot understand the course the Greyraouth Press is pursuing" by its comparative silence on the subject, is easily met. He considers that the stoppage of such a work as the 1 railway must certainly be of some interest to the public, and undoubtedly he is right, but he forgets the fact that the' contractor is bound by his undertaking to execute the work within a certain time, an.d,;if any stoppage occur, the matter of question is between the contractor and his; workmen. If the former fail to execute his contract, there can be no excuse for him in the circumstance that (between him and the men whom he. employs there is a difference of opinion as to the number; of shillings which they are to be paid per day. There has been no "ominous silence " on the part of the Argus jor any other paper published in Greymouth, unless the word "ominous" means that, when people are insufficiently informed on a subject, and find it to be only of partial public concern, they say nothing about it. Nor has there been anyj disposition to " gloss over," or to do anything similar with regard to ithe matter of dispute, and the suppositions of our correspondent are based upon what may be an excusable, but what is nevertheless an erroneous, opinion of what it is the duty of the Press to do. What our correspondent says is this :—-

"There was great rejoicing in Greymouth atjthe turning of the first sod, and the public in general felt justly proud that a local man should be the successful tenderer for the only work of importance that has been ceded to the people of Greymouth. Perhaps the recollection of this, and the fear of prejudicing Mr Hungerford in the eyes 'of the public, has been the cause why the Press has not taken up the matter sooner. I do believe that every man on the railway would like to see Mr Hungerford do well out of the contract, but let it not be at the workingman Vexpense; but if he can't make; it pay without lowering wages, it is a sorry state of things, and that which should bring prosperity to the district is but the initiation of hardship and poverty. Labor has its' rights as well as capital, and, I dare assert is as much entitled to the consideration and respect of the people and the Press of Greymouth as all this nominal capital ; especially when we consider .that the prosperity which the West Coast has hitherto, enjoyed is mainly owing to the industry and perseverance of the men who are now seeking for notliirig.but theirjust demands?' '

"Just pride" about local men being successful, and "a fear of prejudicing Mr Hungerford in the: eyes* of the public," might be very worthy sentiments, if they existed,, and so might be the feeling of "any man on the railway to see Mr Hungerford do weir out of 'the contract/ but, not having ' any particular sympathy in these directions, we do' not admit that they : have at all been considered among the reasons for not referring prominently to this difference between employer and employed, and we do not suppose that they deter men from asking for what they consider their labor is- worth. Our correspondent comes nearer to some of the causes of complaint on the part of the men, and tothe reasons for the public andthe Press sympathising with them, when he states —though only oh his own authority — that- the contractor supplies stores to his workmen, and "charges more than they can be had for six miles further up the country." He, and others with him, have also very reasonable cause for complaint if, as he, .states, the contractor " employs men at eleven shillings per day* and when, on the: strength of that agreement, they have made a sort of home eieht or ten miles away, and when all is nicely fixedy and they have opened regular accounts with his store, he determines to reduce their wages by a shilling a day." There is further reason for complaint if the men are paid "up-

stairs in a public-house, ' and, it some cases, out of the publican's cash-bo* at the end of the bar." Any system ofsponginghouses patronised by any contrastor, no matter who he is, deserves to be condemned, and if Mr Hungerford chooses to adopt araystem which is repugnant to the men themselves, an^ to the general sense of the nublic, the tafa Will have the public sympathy, and have aferfectright to complain. But, is it true, .rad is there no possibility, if it is true, of employer and employed coming to some arranger ment which will give mutual satisfaction? As to thequestion of wages, that isamatter which depends upon demand and supply, and while every man is at liberty to refuse to accept what does not satisfy him, equally so is a contractor at liberty to select— what is not always sjnonymous— the best and cheapest labor that he can procure.

Late last evening we received, by favor of the Government, a telegraphic summary of the statement by the Minister of Public Works, Mr Richardson. It is more interesting than the Financial Statement by Mr Yogel, but it is too lengthy for us to publish when our columns are occupied by other and local matter. We print, in another column, the few sentences relating to the West Coast, Dr Carr lectured last; and, of course, it rained. The proportion of rain, however, was in inverse ratio to the attractions of the l lecture, and there was a fair attendance. The Doctor dealt with phrenology, as displayed upon the stage by the owners, of some good heads andbetter hearts, and he also described the characters of persons who had not paid him any fee for doing so, and who, it is to be boped> were pleased with the gratuitous description. Dr Carr omits the usual custom of inviting the presence of representatives of the Press to his lectures, and there was not leisure, last evening, to permit of any representative of ours being present, even if he did so, but the merits of his lectures justify notice of them being made. It is his, fault if he ( does.not figure more prominently in the records of localintelligence. A public meeting is to be held in ithe Volunteer Hall this evening, at 7.30 p.m., for the purpose of giving the working-men an opportunity of explaining the reasons for the present strike on the railwayworks, and considering what further step's should be taken in the matter. As we mentioned yesterday, the tender for section 04, of the Marsden road, has been accepted, the successful tenderer being Mr A. Matheson. The correct amount for the work is 12492 10s. : A resident of Charleston who combines 'haif-dressihg with meerschaum-pipe-mend-ing, scissor -grinding, razor - setting, and the sale of tobacco, communicates to the public, under a flaming heading, the following'"'private intelligence :"—" Although I don't care who knows it, Hunter, the tobacconist, of Greymouth, says he is the only man who imports tobacco direct from America. I wrote tp him for some, and he sent me seven or eight boxes for a trial ; those that have tried it. say it is better than they have been able to get for some time past." ■■,-'-,