SECRETARY'S NOTE-BOOK.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 41, 15 December 1911, Page 7

SECRETARY'S NOTE-BOOK.

By M. LAHACY.

! After remaining in town —with, the exception of one day travelling to and from Timaru —1 left on a flying tour through North Canterbury- I will perhaps pass many who might think 1 ought to call upon them. , If these men give the matter due consideration they will accept my passing them by as a compliment, as I am out for a few weeks, with my head down (white I travelling, of course) in search of new [ members and trying to convert the I stubborn and to teach the inexpenen.ced. * ♦ • I am travelling per motor bike this ime, and reckon on working my old beat in Otago and Southland. * • - My predecessor (Mr. Darey) adroited motor bikes for organisers two years ago, and some , of the- capitalist papers made a joke of it. That same year I averaged 60 miles a day on a push bike in the hills of Central Otago uid Southland, and I would have aijoved the company of any one of those Who draw fat dividends from those Conservative rags, thoxxgh I aui of opinion, that they (to a man) would have "turned it up." * • • I came back at the finish about a stone lighter than I went out, though some shirkers told mc I had a good job. I could (with decent luck) have made more with a pair of bright swords and only had one boss at a time. However, the shirker is getting to be a thing of the past, and as time goea on he is going to disappear altoi g ether. ' I beg the shearers and shed hands of New"Zealand to ask themselves this question: ' 'Had we been organised 20 years- ago as we are to-day, what vrould be our position to-day?" Education and organisation attained, there will be no room for the individual who causes strife in our own camps; and they are many. * • * If the workers have a misunderstanding, why not settle it without making the whole business public property? ,What is keeping the workers of New Zealand at variance with each other to-day is their leaders (so-called), and I pirt i the question—-Why can those said leaders not agree ? * ■ * . • I know most of these men, and as men I respect most of them : —if not all —but I do not feel inclined to regard them as leaders. Every worker in New Zealand believes in the Federation of Labor, and knowing this, why cannot unity be broiight about? Interesting developments can be expected at the end.of this season with regard to shed hands' wages, as many of the employers are endeavouring to avoid paying their employees the wages fixed in the award. -. » « # In some cases the said gentlemen are out to win on a technical pomt — viz., that they do not belong to the Sheepowners' Union, despite the fact that when the case was before the Arbitration Court it was these, same ■gentlemen, who were, called upon to give evidence on behalf of "Fat." I refer to such men as Messrs. Evans, Theat and others of that ilk who take a leading part in that respected organisation, the Farmers' Union. * f ■* ' The said gentlemen have so far had a decent run, but if they are going for all time to shelter under the wing of a class-biassed judge, backed up by Parliament, which at-all times sides with Fat, I have no hesitation in saying, as others have said, that the I.C. and A. Act is nothing but a curse to the workers of this country. * am For three years I have waited to see that which Jim Thorn failed to do (not through want of ability or, in fact, any fault "of his own) done by some other advocate of the workers' rights, with the backing of the workers engaged in the industry at his back. * * * • I have always maintained that the country workers must be organised and made to realise the benefit of a union ere much progress could be attained. * * • If these workers are going to be ignored by the Court because they are not in the position of the shearers (able to fight for themselves), then I too am prepared to shout "Away with arbitration!" « a .« I have always maintained that a body of workers going to the court for the first time might improve their conditions, but that once done the only thing to gain them further advantages is being in a position to demand same, through the strength of their organise tion. * * • I would strongly advise the farm laborers of Otago, Wellington, Marlborough and other districts, where the battle is not raging, to get to business and organise their forces, as they surely see that they have nothing to expect from the employing class or from the coiwt as at present constituted. * « « If the constitution is _ altered, we have no guarantee that it will bean improvement, ajad grey hairs are creeping into the black and brown of most of us. Hark! How nuich better off ar<s wo than we were ben years ago?

I appeal to the farm laborers of j Wellington j Otago and Marlborough j once more to- get out and buJid together, as all workers with any grit in them do. Help your fellows to fight Labor's battle and by so doing you will not only benefit yourself but, the masses. Get down, you farm laborers outside of Canterbury, and when you are organised look around you before you rush to the Arbitration Court with a case. * * 1 do not desire to convey the idea tha-t I am advocating a strike, etc., as I am opposed to strikes in every form. At the same time, 1 maintain that no man can force another to toil for him. With systematic organisation there would be no strikes. , > • • What body of employers would fight a battle if they knew beforehand they were going to be beaten? When theJjnlk of the workers (men, women and child slaves) can be made to see this there will be no strike*, and the reason is not far to seek. * ♦ • During the strike "Fat" makes nothing, because you are not making iib for him, and don't forget that -when the workers of this or any country want food, etc., they are going to have it if they are organised industrially and stand' by each other. •- »> * # » No Labor representative went to the poll in Ivaiapoi or Selwyn, where there are gents, who should be instructed to move on. The said members have no time for the workers, and that is the fault of the workers themselves, who allow such to represent them. * • » I am receiving a number of names of shirkers who refuse to join the Shearers' Union, while they are grabbing the £1 per hundred won for them by the Union at the point of the bayonet. I do not intend to publish the names and addresses of these until the shearing season is at an end. At the end of the season I will supply the list along with the names of another section that have ratted on their mates. * j • ■ . The minimum rates for shed hands are inquired for daily, and are as follows : —Wool rollers., 30s. or Is peahour and found, but piece work is allowed ; fleece pickers, cooks' assistants over 18, minimum rate, 275..; boys under 18 and Maori females may,be engaged at £1 per week. Shed hands may be called upon to do work in or about the shed or yards while working. * * •■..*. Most of the -employers are honorably abiding by this award, as agreed upon in Palmerston North and elsewhere, viz., that what was fixed in one industrial district should be accepted as a Dominion award. Morally, the employers throughout New Zealand are called, upon to pay the rates fixed in the award made in Wellington. * « However, the employers are cursed with shirkers, who go back on them at any time, and while I see this going on, I do not blame thie men who fought the case., as I believe they are at least honorable, and that the agreement was made in good faith; but that a small minority of those they fought for are, like Judas, ready to sell them at any time, and they are doing it at the present time. . * • • If shed hands will report to mc where employers pay less than the rates mentioned above, I will guarantee that they pay the full fare next season, if they employ free men, as shed hands. m * m Many employers in the country dp try to be fair to their men, and in many cases pay a bit over the minimum rate without a murmur, but the wowser leaders of the. Farmers' Union are not of that ilk. * ■ * ■ * I would advise well-meaning farmers (and there are a large number of such) to find out what wages some of their leading lights paid their shed hands this season, in spite of an award being in existence. Let mc ask these gents if their shed hands were not as good as those that received the rate stipulated in the award, and if they informed the said hands that it was on account of not being competent that they received a lower rate of pay. » • • Levy ticket-holders are notified that subscriptions have run out, and call for renewal. P. J. Greene (rep.) writes: Kekerangu started shearing on Nov. 16. There is a full board mow. We ar» having a lot of trouble through wet weather. M. Laracy visited here, and got a good hearing from the boys, all hands taking tickets, which is a big thing for Kekerangu, so I am informed. "There is a strong movement here to form a imist*rers' union or join with us. It is a thing that ie very badly wanted in Marlborough.