ORGANISER MEE'S REPORT.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 2, 8 December 1911, Page 14

ORGANISER MEE'S REPORT.

lam still at Martinhorough! I have visited six sheds and secured 65 members. I do" not consider the work of an organiser is wholly and soley to get j members; our movement has a greater < and more significant object, and that | is to prepare by educational effort for a change of society. I have had some : splendid meetings amongst the men j here, and they are beginning to see : that the object of unionism is not only • to increase wages, but to prepare for • the social ownership of aU the means of production. I "'ana doing all I can for the paper. I have secured quite a number of subscribers and many promises. The Maoris here are undermining the movement with the contract system. I think that our Association should make* a drastic effort to stop this. Wherever, it is in vogue, it has proved the curse. of legitimate effort to organise. We even find white men going in on the, contract system—old uouonists too. There is one who was a great unionist' in Australian and when there he opposed contracting, but he seems no\y to have _ completely changed his coat. The cookies here are great advocates ofthe Arbitration Act. They tell mc, that it is the best thing that . ever ! happened for them. They can now keep : the men about the sheds until the j work is finished, when before the lads' were prone to desert for fresh fields and pastures new. If our men go away how they can stop 75 per cent, of the ; total sheep shorn, so you see the Act j is a distinct advantage to the squatter. I come across quite a number of wharf men in the country. We seem to ■ be on a par as far as casual occupation ; goes. Our men are that the wharf men have come bur way and joined with'us in the N.Z.F.L. Thiiags?: should begin! to move some. We now? have the wool from the sheep's back, to the ship's hold. This gives us a i big say over the landed proprietors, and in tihe event of a squeeze our national federation should be able to protect each of its units, and thus procure better conditions for them. Our Federation—-the shearers*—-has a unique opportunity te do educational work for Socialism. Our organisers are able to go into the country districts, where but little of the good seed has yet been sown. We have a great future before us. Let us hope that full advantage will be taken of every opportunity to push the paper and the cause. ; Under date November 25, J. Mcc writes from Martinhorough ' —I visited two stations . where the men work all tbe' year round. The next few days I called on some small places round about and secured several members.. The next station I called at \yas Hautatoa, where I had the biggest fight I ever put Up. I introduced .myself in the usual.sty|,e, and after a few remarks I could see they were not haying any, and most of them became hostile. This put mc on my mettle, as half of them were Maoris, who won't take tickets and work on contract. However, I started and for fully an hour I raked them from stem to stern. I touched. on everything, even the Maori land question, and at the finish two souls sought 'salvation —one being la man whom they had been trying to make a unionist for years. Most of the shearers reckoned I won a great victory, as that man was a sort of chief among Ins mates, and had great influence with them. The Te Awaite men were industrialists to a man, and passed a resolution in favour of cancelling their registration under the Act. I was speaking to E. McLeod, the rep., as he passed through here for the south, and he said that was the verdict of 19 shearers and 17 shed hands. He is going to shear in several big sheds in the south, and that is what he intends to preach J am pretty well finished in this part, and will shift further north towards Tenuie, and work along the coast to Castlepoint. After that I may follow the crowd up to Taihape, but I am not sure.— J. MEE.