AUCKLAND. STRIKE OF THE NATIVE WORKMEN EMPLOYED ON THE ROADS. [From the New Zealander, April 15.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 298, 7 June 1848, Page 3

AUCKLAND. STRIKE OF THE NATIVE WORKMEN EMPLOYED ON THE ROADS. [From the New Zealander, April 15.]

The new system which it is now attempted to introduce, of providing rations for the native labourers on the roads, deducting the price from their wages, has been productive of some practical inconvenience. It appears not to chime in at all with their inclinations, or ideas of independence, for they refused, one and all at first, to accept them, insisting upon full money payment as heretofore, and struck work with as much unanimity as if they had been Newcastle colliers, or Manchester spinners. It was expected indeed, that they would soon tire of idleness, and that they would fall contentedly into work again, at first by twos and threes, and then in a body. We are sorry to find, however, that the expectation has not yet been fulfilled ; about forty only out of three hundred and fifty, having given way, while great numbers of those who still hold out have taken the decisive step of returning to their homes. As it might be supposed, this matter has given rise to much difference of opinion, and to much discussion of the policy which dictated the measure in question ; the prevailing disposition seeming to be a leaning towards the native side of the dispute : still, we cannot help thinking that the Government was imperatively called upon to interfere, not only to check abuses that were creeping in, but also to secure efficient performance of the service required. In the first place, it appeared that something very like the truck system of our own manufacturing districts — now disallowed by law — had been introduced by the overseers, (one among them excepted) in the sale of flour and other necessaries to the working parties, at prices which were considered exorbitant by Government. In the next place, the well-known improvidence of the Maories, consuming or wasting two or three days' provision in one, and then remaining half starved until pay-day came again, was only to be guarded against by some arrangemen.Lth.at would insure .regularity of distribution. An honest ten hours' work on a fast day was not to be expected, nor was it obtained. The necessity of providing them with a better quality of food bad been likewise made apparent. Flour. or potatoes only are insufficient aliment where hard work is to be done ; meat, which natives will seldom buy for themselves, is needed to give sufficient stamina, to endure the labour required from them. As it was, the hour before dinner and the hour before sunset, proved to be completely thrown away ; they were exhausted, and might as well or better have been sleeping, than going through the semblance of work with tools almost dropping from their hands. The natives urged objections to the new arrangement with their usual ingenuity. And the arguments are plausible enough. They declared that they were not slaves ; that they were the Queen's subjects equally with the white men, and that they would be treated and paid like white men; neither were they soldiers — meaning, we believe, that they had entered into no kind of engagement, JJke those who had enlisted in the police force-^out were at liberty to save or spend their earniqgs as they pleased. Som e

had provisions sent in from the country by their own relations as a free gift ; to those, of course, any deduction of the price for rations from wages, was a dead loss of money. One among them, urged that he had a wife and children, which obliged him to live more cheaply than he could upon Government allowance ; for, said he, if it takes five shillings a week to feed me, how am I to support the rest of my family on the remaining four. It was likewise shewn, that a trade had sprung up among themselves, supplies being regularly brought in from distant settlements for the use of the road parties, which would now be left in the bands of the providers. That difficulty however, was soon got over by one of our townsmen offering to take everything that they could bring off their hands at once. Argument proved ineffectual on either side, and the consequence has been, that the public works are now at a stand sill; how much longer they will remain so, no one can say. The malcontents have certainly held out much more stiffly than had been expected ; still the probability is, that most of them will ultimately return to their employment, or that their places will be supplied by fresh hands. The mistake appears to have consisted in the suddenness of the change. A little preparatory management would have brought all round smoothly enough. Maories are not yet to be managed by word of command ; they are as hard to drive as they are easy to be led. They reason so pertinaciously on every subject, that the off-hand, dictatorial tone is by no means the surest of success ; they have their own peculiar notions of right, which must be satisfied, before they can ever be induced to yield a point. It is unlucky that the system now proposed was not enforced when the natives were first engaged ; all difficulty would have thus been obviated. The suggestion was actually made to the Governor, but he then objected to it. He has however, seen reason to alter his opinion, and is now resolute to gain his point, declaring that even if he stands alone, he will carry out his purpose, It is at all events, too late to give way.