AUCKLANDERS AT WESTPORT. THE CAPE F0ULWIND CONTEST.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 357, 6 April 1889, Page 5

AUCKLANDERS AT WESTPORT. THE CAPE FOULWIND CONTEST.

Auckland, April 3. A telegram from Wesfcport yesterday showed bhafcthe local residents and striking workmen there had made it so warm tor the men who leccntly went from Auckland that they had resolved to throw up the sponge and leave the field. We have received from James Brewer and James Barrowman, on behalf of the Executive of the Cape JToulwind Labour Union, a letter extracted from the Wellington " Press " in reply to certain strictures which had appeared in that paper- They say thai the piesent labour difficulty at Cape Pouhvind is not properly un<iei stood in Auckland distnct. Thesubstance of the letter in Hie Wellington " Press " is that the contractors attempted to reduce wages to 7s and 8s pei day. "This was resented, and has led up to the present calamitous situation. The erstwhile doimanL union was reformed, every man on the work, with but four exceptions, joined its ranks, and it was resolved to take a stand for 9s a daj' for quarrymen-and 8^ a day for permanent men (ohe&ame rate as that paid by the Government Boaid)." After various futile negotiations "All the old hands were discharged on the 18th inst. , and since that feeling has naturally run very high, but, so far as the local men are concerned, there has not been the slightest approach to a breach of the peace. The handb hitherto employed in the quarries and on the works aie mostly married men with laige tainilies ; many of them are very old le-idents, and are property holders and ratepayers, and all have crone to more or Jess expense in providing homes for themselves. They are also men experienced in the particular class of work required. .Regarding the pay here, necessaries of all descriptions are 25 to 50 per cent, higher th/m in other more settled parts of the eoleny ; and men cannot, owing to wet weather, make moie than four and a half days per week, which has been the actual average during the past two and a halt years, ns .-hown by the Secretary* statements furnished to the Boards. The time has not averaged even that since the contingent started. Theretoieyou will agiee that 9s per dny is not an unreasonable demand." The inten >ity of the feeliug which has been created, and the fact that the old men are supported by the local press, is pretty conclusively .shown hy the following; smack at the Auckland contingent, which appeared in the -'Buller Miner :'" — Last Sunday morning a new element was added to thi? question, bv the arrival here of fifty or sixty men from Auckland, imported by the contractors to lill the places of the old employees, who were all discharged. Spea'ing generally, we do not think they are at all qualified to do so with efficiency. Certainly there are some very good men among them and a tew of them hove shown their sense and right feeling by taking the pai t of the old hands, but, with these worthy exceptions, the now-comers appear to be a miscellaneous collection of old men, ydung lads, and inexperienced men of all sorts and conditions. Many of the new contingent had evidently been beguiling the tedium of the voyage with the cup that cheers and inebriates, and they celebrated their ai rival by further festivities, including seveial fi.stic encounters among themselves. Fortunately, no trouble has occurred between the two parties, a result wholly due to the self-control ot the local men. who have shown their good sense by treating the taunts of the new men with silent contempt. One of the latter .standing up on one of the trucks signified his willingness to tackle the best man Westpoit could raise, and it is much to the credit of the local men that they have behaved so quietly. Since last Sunday some ot the vegetable gardens at the Cape have been stripped of their contents and though we do not mean to assert that our vi&itoisare to blame for this, yet it is a tact that such a thing never occurred previous to theii arrival. The new men went to work on Tuesday morning, but judging from the rate of output since then, thoy are nothing hke equal to the others in working value. From all the foregoing it will be seen that the new hands are a very bad substitute for the old, both as regards thenworth as citizens, and their value as employees. Many of the old hands nave been here from eighteen to twenty - three years ; they are eauable, experienced, straightforward, sober, industrious men. Their disp'acement by the scratch lot imported would be a loss to the district. We are al^o convinced that the invescment is a bad one, ioi the contractors, tho old employees being a better bargain at 9f, than the nesv ones at Bb. It will take some considerable time for the Auckland men to become expert at work for which few of them are fitted by previous training, unless a few of the old hands could be got to work with them, but the latter will be careful to avoid this, if they are alive to their own interest. Messrs Wilkie Bros, and Wilson, as business men, will of course endeavour to work the contract as cheaply as possible-

and their preeenb action is quite legiti mate. The present number of the new men is quite insufficient to carry on the work, more than double the number of such men would be required, as shown by the output, and as the nature of the dispute becomes more generally known, Messrs Wilkie Bros. will find it more and more difficult to ob tain men from other places, and will find it quite possible to get men experienced in this class of work They will therefore be compelled to fall back upon some of the discharged men, bub if these absolutely refuse to work along with the non-Union men, itfollows that the new contingent must join the Union or go out, when their places would be filled by the old hands. — " liuller ! Miner,"