South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1893.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7077, 24 February 1893, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1893.

The wharf labourers have undertaken to obtaiu a remedy for what they consider a grievance, namely, being required to work with seamen on board foreign-going vessels. The grievance is two-fold. On the one hand the sailors do some of the work of which the shore hands think they should get the whole ; and on the other hand, the lumpers get the harder work alloted to each gang, and the sailors the softer. From what was said at the meeting the other night, there should bo no groat difficulty in getting the grievance remedied. There are three parties to be considered, the shipmasters, the contracting stevedores, and the lumpers. The shipmasters must accept whatever terms the other two parties agree to, so that the issue lies between the two resident parties.. It stands to reason that , those two should rather work together than against each other, and if they do that in a reasonable manner no injustice would be done to the shipmaster or shipowner. We cannot quite see, however, why in a business like stevedoring, which requires so little capital, the workmen do not form a Co-operative Association and take contracts to discharge and load vessels themselves. There must be too much mutual jealousy among the men, or it would have been done before now. Some knowledge of business methods, and smartness in applying them, are required in a successful stevedore, and unfortunately, these qualifications are not always properly valued by working men. If the wharf men were to co-operate, and found a “ smart business man ” among them to manage the business, it is to bo feared that there would arise bickerings, and complaints that he was getting “ too soft a thing,” <( only running about,” while the rest of the company were doing “ hard graft.” The penalty for unwillingness to put up with that sort of thing, for unwillingness to accept business ability as of greater value or even as of equal value to “hard grafting,” is the necessity of paying a great deal more for that business ability in an independent contractor. This however is altogether apart from the question of the relations of the contractor to the men, and the question whether the contractor should accept “ rules of the port ” framed to please his fellow townsmen rather than strangers.