The Boarding House Table.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 45, 19 January 1912, Page 7

The Boarding House Table.

The chary," was tvvt'iily-fivo shilling and only "permanent boarders" were accepted. Our talk at breakfast was not all about- the latest dresses worn by 3lrs. Islington or Mrs. Ward, but generally turned mi the partieumT things of life, such as, for instance, where the arriving hundreds of immigrants were going to find the chances of a general strike in Now Zealand following the linos of that in tho Old Country, or such like topics.

Then sometimes t-lio opinion was expressed by one or other of the gentlemeu sitting at the table at which 1 sat tliat agitators wcro an unmitigated nuisance, and ought u> Iμ: put down at all costs by the strong hand of government. As a general rule the parliamentary utterances of liassey or Allon wore declared to bo unanswerable by the Wardites.

My scat was at the end of the table, so that i commanded a good view of my fivo neighbours and could see- from their faces whether or not the criticisms that passed and repassed on the various subjects were causing mental perturbations or othorwid?.

Within easy speaking distance, but at another table sat a lady with her two boys. Slio came to tlw boardinghouse Irani somewhere in tlw West Country. There her husband remained, following his occupation. Wo two (the lady and the writer) in tho course of a month or more, had got on easy speaking terms, and from her 1 learned that she had loft Jier husband for a time in order to "mother" her boys while they were attending the High School and College. In tho Western Country no such educational facilities were available, and although a great expense to tho parents, still the boys' future had to bo considered (a college course ueitig thought indispensable to their successful careers in the. world), hence tho unavoidable separation of husband and wife. H-β remained at his post, for lie was a wage-slave, although I have no doubt he would have repudiated that title with scorn.

Chief engineer to a large western mining company as he was, and opposed, as such men generally are, to tho interests of their fellow-workers —the minors—he was still nothing moro than a wage-slave. His household expenses, 1 learned from his wife's conversation at various times, were lar<£". Tho cost of educating her two boys was no inconsiderable sum, and throe rooms in a. fashionable boarding-house made a laa-go hole even in a. chief engineer's salary. 1 also gathered from AJrs. Engineer that soinetinu:* it was with extreme difficulty that ho could make "both ends meet." Her husband's Ufo was insured, as well as her own, tor considerable amount**, and that and their education quite likely would ho nil the h'-i it:i:•;■"• coming to the boys ohouiJ viu .■■J.'s'l happen to ti:e parent J. It was. on the face of thing-i, not a case where s> man was receiving a large salary and investing a goodly portion, every year in solid, golckdgod securities until such times as the savings yielded him in- interest alone a decent inconi.'. In his case such a course was not possible. l-ar-seeirig though he illicit b\ <'nrcf-i! tor tho futuro of his wii'e and sous though !w was, there, vet remained a power supremo that held him d.-.w■>: —:tw pow-r of capital in the liuivU oi a. company of exploiters —ai\d that he did α-y, *»*, or if lie did lit was as ihi-Tr/e. a4a darkly. He 'could not get an ivre.ise in salary, J)ivitlcii'ls vere a tirst cousrieration, and iho-.n' w.<r« r.ot largo. Positions such as he held were l>«' ami far between, and if any cr ipped up younger men goiuM-allv *r.in>p*"l the. coveted morsels ° 11" w.'m ]-o- old ai'.y inannor of s;iieecii-onl.v He married at thirtv-or.e at twen.ty-nino, and the buys were just fourteen and sixfreu.

This much I lenrn*?!, whnn I noticed a change come over the countenance of Mrs. Engineer. She "began to look inoro ai;d moro worried about something. 1 did not comment about the quite noticeable change, thinking that whatever was trr.ubiir.g hor would pass away and natural vivaotfy soon restore her to tho usual complacency. But it was otherwises a-> you shall hear.

Several month.? a rumour had started in the West Country that- the miners would soon bo ''on strike." They had got four determined men in their ranks who ivero giving cause for alarm to tho officials or tho different mining companies throughout the whole of tho "Western Country. Their names, I found out Inter in tiio conservation, to bo Ample, rickoy, Webber, and Gogray. These men were being blamed by the officials of tiws mines as stirrersnp of discontent amongst tho mineiT3. Not satisfied with their diabolical work, in the mining indusjjy, they gradually carried the agitation right to tho coalheavers at tho ship' 3 side. Still not content, they visited every shipping port round about wherever coal was unloaded and spread discontent thoro as wall. But even this did not satisfy these octopii. The very coal carters on the streets wore approached and inoculated with tli€* terrible poison. Every sailorman aboard a ship or on a lighter, oven including ths coal luilks in the harbors, was got at by those fieuds of agitators and corrupted. No longer could chief ejutiiioora trust k> a single

man remaining at his post, loyal to tin hand that fed him.

The miner might hew coal, did, in fact, how coal, till every foot of available spaco about tho mining compauiee properties was jammed full, until not a ton moro could bo eraminod thoro. Every customer had been warned u> keep stocks "full up" in case of mining vuible. Some assented, some heeded no , and accepted the risk. 13ut wha\ !iuateix?d all this planning on th» i>.- v of the managements if not a pouu'.i or coal stored could be got awa.v either by rail or sea? Dividends would not be forthcoming for tho shareholders, and that was a catastrophe not to be imagined.

All this gradually came out from Mrs. Engineer's conversations at d ifferont times. One day she- said to mc:

"Those wretches of miners—they don't know when they aro well off. They arc making £4 a week, some moro than that, and if they are off sick they get a pound a week."

I gently replied that "for a sick man a. pound seemed a very small sum, as a jsick person generally needed attendance and medicine and strengthening, nourishing foods at a cost- altogether out of proportion to the sick allowance." I pointed out further that his wife and family, if he had such, could not exisb on doctor's pills and physic and a pound could not possibly go far even in a small family. But Mrs. Engineer would have none of it. The agitators wore at the of the whole trouble, and it was causing her husband great concern. Ho had lost his sleep for nights together, trying to fathom the schetnes of thee wieke<l iivpii and in planning counter-moves. "But the, matter Was ncaring a finish." Her husband was sure of that. Murmurs of meetings held at all hours had reached his ears. Something was in the wind, and because lie could not find out just exactly what that something was he got tidgetty a.nd his letters communicated that fidgcttine&s to his wife. He felt (at least so his wife said) as if the sword of Damocles was suspended over his head and the keen blade might come down any instant.

Tlio writer pointed oufc to tlie harassed woman t-liat it was evident the shareholders were living off the minors' labor, and in reality her own husband tho engineer was also dependent on them for his income, and as these im\u had a most unpleasant life it was small wonder that dissatisfaction hud come into their midst.

"You're a Socialist!" she almost screamed at mc in her excitement. I shook my head and denied tho impeachment, but 1 Bi&l: "I am a humanitarian if that is what you mean. I believe in treating those who minister to my wants with the greatest consideration, lor as you know they can help us so much easier than each of us could do so separately, if there were no help. No, lam not a Socialist or agitator, yet 1 think there is a great room for improvement everywhere. The miner's child ought to have as good an education ns is given to any other fluid. And until that education is complete, the duty oi tho whole peopleis to provide iur that child a-iid iur every child, for are not the children the future race? Why, Sir Joseph Paston was only a common gardener, tending a lot of flowers in a large garden, yet his brain conceived one of the most marvellous structures of glass and iron ever the world has seen. His engineering capabilities were lying dormant or at the most confined to "hot housed" for a largo part of his life, and when he got the chance he won out. Who knows what capabilities can. como forth out of the brain of even a miner's child, and even as a humanitarian I would have it got tho chaucc."

Mrs. Engineer was now really angry. "I think," she exclaimed, "that is carrying education to an absurdity. What does a miner's child, want with a college course, anyhow? Does it requiro musio and painting clown in v dirty mineP Does it require a knowledge oi' mathematics and trigonometry to hew coal? Does it require «a knowledge of sound, light and heat, not to speak of electrical science and chemistry, to earn a living in a mine-"

I broko in at this point. "Voa, it requires a knowledge of all those things to work anywhere with the least passible waste of power. In some American shops the pick and shovel men are now being taught how to do their work with the fewest possible motions of the body and the increased output from the men being able to do more before becoming tired out has meant an increased dividend to the owners of the shops. Now, if the child is taught the scientific part when at*school or college ho himself, when at work, will still further deviso savings hero and there, not only of his own bodily strength, but may so improve the tools he is working with, that much more output can be got in a given time."

"No doubt that might happen," she exclaimed, "but they would be continually wanting more; they can, never be satisfied, the wretches. As long as that fellow Ample remains in the land there will be trouble. He ought to be shot, and so he will be some dark night. They are all "

"Co-religionists," I fancy was the word that she was about to use, for I interrupted her so suddenly that she did not complete it. ''Excuse e>e, Mrs. Engineer, I have to go out, and must get dressed now," I said.

Wo hare not spoken since, but the worried fac« is still at the neighbouring table.