The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 832, 13 December 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. F RIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1878.

Siiearers are so scarce this season that the station-managers up the Waitaki are in great straits. They are not to be got for love or money, because they are not in the district. The hordes that made their way here periodically to pick up the crumbs from the tables of the wool-grower have not favored us this year with a visit. This is to be regretted ; for, bad as the majority of them were, they were by far preferable to nothing. We think that it is not difficult to account for the scarcity of shearers in this district this year. A few years ago the price per 100 was 20s ; it was reduced to 17s Od, and now it has suffered a further reduction to lGs Sd. It would appear that the shearers that have been in the habit of visiting this district during the shearing season are not appreciative of the reduction, and their absence would indicate that they can .find something that pays them better than shearing at 10s Sd per 100. But that is no argument that they are worth more. The fact is that the shearers that have heretofore done service here have been a motley lot. Many of them knew more about the quility of liquor than they did about taking wool off a sheep, and others may have been everything else that could be desired, but they were just as ignorant of the art of shearing. It will therefore be seen that the squatters of this district are scarcely to be blamed for the reduction that has been made in the wages given to shearers. We are quite willing to believe that if 20s per 100 sheep is the rate that should be paid to good practical shearers, lGs 8d per 100 is a very fair rate for bunglers, who at one moment leave the wool on the sheep's back, and, at another, bring away the skin with it. It may appear hard that good shearers should have to suffer a reduction in their rate of pay because of the incompetence of others ; but that is one of the effects of trade unionism, which has for its object perfect equality of workmen and wages. The want of shearers is a serious drawback to this district, and to many other districts in the Colony ; but it ought never to have occurred. It is another evidence of the defectiveness of the immigration arrangements of this Colony. We may hope for butter things now that an old colonist, who is well-informed in Colonial matters, has been appointed to make an emigration tour through Canada and the United Kingdom in the interests of the Colony.