Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MAY 12. 1896. The Oppression of Workmen.

Manawatu Herald, 12 May 1896, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MAY 12. 1896. The Oppression of Workmen.

In the year 1891 when the Ballance Ministry oaniH into power, they signalised their succession to office by passing an Act which has proved a detriment to all honest workmen and only of advantage to rogues. Under the idea that employers passed their time in planning ways to cheat their employees, parliament was asked to pass the Truck Act under which any employer foolish enough to show any consideration towards an employee can be most easily defrauded. It is most right that the weak should be protected and that where employers may have shown a desire to use their influence over their employees by charging sums for necessary goods higher than what is customary, they should certa.u'y bd prevented from doing go, but that is oc excuse for making

a criminal of an employer who has striven to assist his employee. But this is just what thi3 most wonderful Truck Act does. A case has been reported in Wellington where an employer, at the request of an employee, supplied him with goods, furniture chiefly, to fit up a house for his wife whom he was expecting from a distant town, and the employee expressed himself Willing to pay for the goods at the rate of one pound a Week. The employer beieving thin to be too large a propor fion of the weekly wages—some fifty shillings said he required only eight shillings a week to be paid off. Che man paid for a week or two and hpn, teaming the Liberal law, re fus< d furth-r amounts, or to give a builment, or to give back the goods, •>t to pay for thpm 1 and the law of V ,v Z. uhrrl a, fr-jm f! >• . Lib.. Minictfv m"(r n " ( ' nnc! *"'■>'" I ftryp vmnM | ijink impudence uould not ;iny fur r.ber go, but it doe?, as the Act provides not only that the employer shall lose his money but he •" shall he deemed guilty of an off'nce, and he liable to the following penalties : —For the first offence, a penalty not" exceeding £10 ; for the second offrncp i penalty not exceeding £26 ; and for a third or any subsequent offence, i penalty not exceeding £50." As til penalties are to be recovered in a nummary way, the employer may find himself in prison for being too •»ood natured. Cheerful isn't it ? We have the Wellington case before is and what can be the public ver-< dicf ? If the employer was not wrong morally, but technically, the reverse must be the employees position, and it does seem more than a ! huge farce that our Statute Book should contain an Act where any one person can be persuaded into giving his property into another person's possession under promises which he can fail to carry out and legally defy, his employer to do anything. The employer referred to was dazled at the position and was informed, in answer to his query, that there was no way of obtaining redress and he had better get into Parliament and have the Act altered. It appears about time that some one in Parliament made a move in this direction so the dishonesty of some -should no longer be encouraged and protected. The case id full cf matter of interest to | country settlers who are continuously being asked for work by swaggers, men whose misfortune it is to be out of work, and frequently in want of everything. If a job is given them, tools, food, tent, &o. are needed, how are they to be procured ? The employer's hands are tied, he dare not in face of this Truck Act make an advance, unless it is for falling bush or clearing land of bush. We have heard it argued that subsection 6 of clause 19 gives employers power to find materials and tools, but we hold that the words finishing the subsection •' as aforesaid " refers to the previous five subsections and to nothing else, and if we are right then it is only on bush contracts can the employer find " the necessary outfit and means of support, and materials or togls requisite for commencing their engagement, to any amount not exceeding in any case the amount of two months' wages to bs earned by such workmau or workmen in suoh engagement." The difficulties to the swagger in getting work are thus considerably increased by the action of those who have been shouting themselves hoarse that they are the workingmon'9 friends.