"DON'T WORRY !"

NZ Truth, Issue 140, 22 February 1908, Page 5

"DON'T WORRY !"

AN ENGINEER'S SENSELESS ADVICE. Rangitikei Workers 5 Woes. When Wiil They Be Paid ?

This paper being particular m its choice of acquaintances naturally doesn't know the Mayor of Rangitikei or the Councillors of that corporation, and hot knowing the Council Engineer, a peisoh named Mail*, Who rides -the high horse and wants a fnll badly, nobody need be offended at the words of wisdom that are to be hurled at them. Not knowing any of these important individuals, "Truth" cannot even pose as a candid friend, and anyhow, its remarks are made freely and without malevolence Or bad temper or bad liver or anything. It only wants to convince everybody at Rangitikei that working men are human beings and as such entitled to consideration, as the Engineer, or the ginger-beer, or anything or anybody who., when all is said and done, isn't anything or anybody. As a sort of a preliminary jab on the jaw, this paper wishes to remark that Ratig-i---tikei is noi a particularly lively or prosperous district. Everybody takes things easy, and the Council is never m a hurry and only meets once a 'month , and transacts whatever business, there is on the agenda paper and. that isn't much and doesn't re-, quire much intelligence to get through it. Accounts are certainly passed for payment, and if the Council's creditors are settled with as prompt ly as are some of the employees, it might be to everybody's interests if they woke up and. kicked Councillors really hard and their feelings with abusive language. Now, this Council has suoh a large amount of business to, transact that 1 it passes accounts and then adjourns fot a month, and meets again and talks of crops and cows and other useful agricultural subjects, and it never seems to trouble anybody that the maintenance men have not been paid and that the toilers have to borrow on their screws, ( AND GET INTO DEBT, long after the said screws are due. "Truth" does not know how long this state of affairs has existed, but it knows this much: 'On January 1 25* last the wages were passed for payment, and up. till last week they bad not been paid, nnd m a humble way this paper wants to know why ? One worker on the roads got- sick of waiting and borrowed his screw, which was £6 16s for the current month, and left his job, which he had finished, being owed another^£s : lls, which won't be passed till ' February 25, or thereabouts, and God i alone knows whenever he will get it at the rate things move at Rangitikei. Anyhow, this worker, and there ase plenty of others m the same plight, came to Wellington, the other day, and being anxious about his sweatedfbr earnings, telegiraphed to the Mair person, who must not be confounded with the Mayor person, but who is the Engineer to the Council, and asked him m so many words when the hell he intended to pay up, and this is the reply the maintenance man got : "Monaghan will pay you, don't worry about it.— Mair." Now, the man who tells a hard- worker who is kept waiting for his dues, not to worry about it, is a casual sort of a cuss, who ought to be privately told the stojry of an individual who never worried, and dedttcfc a moral from it. Monaghan, it might be mentioned, is foreman, and whether it is his fault that the wages due are not ward, "Truth" cannot really say. It does, however, say that MR "DON'T WORRY" MAIR ought to have his brains brushed and ought to have his salary (not vulgar wages) kept back till he gets anxious, and then he plight worry. This should ffive the Rangitikei Council something to have a decent shindy over when' it meets again, and some councillor should forsake cow . and .taters and buck right on and; raise Cain and make it hot foir somebody, and thus, get. his name m the papers and be regarded as a friend of the worker, This matter should provide material for a hell of a row, and should give an ..excellent opportunity for somebody to say something of a startling and unparliamentary nature, and it ought to make Mair sick, and,, moreover, he might not be so ready to tell Workingmen not to worry about their overdue \ wages. < 'Truth" doesn't see its way cleat to insult anybody just now, but it cer-r tainly will 1 try and do its best if ever; a similar complaint is laid before it, and when this paper is m an insulting mood, somebody feels sick and sorry as a result. • (