OUR CO-OPERATIVE WORKS

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1723, 20 March 1895, Page 2

OUR CO-OPERATIVE WORKS

(to the Editor.) S®,—-I notice that in: a recent issue of the News, your worthy correspondent, ‘lapyx ’ finds fault with some of'the' ‘ cockatoos ’ in, this district for taking contracts too low, and so cut out the. genuine working meu. If the cockatoo who leaves his home for months at a time to work hip deep in water and inud aud sleep under the paltry shelter of h piece ipf canvas, so as to, earn support for his wife and family, is hot a genuine working man, I am indeed mistaken., /.Surely the genuine work-, ingjjnan is ; not him who—- -. /{ls all alivp at working strife, . ~, Who walks the streets quite shabby; (Who leaves His cash in the public-house ■'And loves i'o pay—Hobody.

I notice also that * lapyx ’ pounces oh one ?s>f the. co-operative workmen on tho Baeroa line, and that a spirit of selfishness,, if not of vindictiveness, has plainly-shown itself .in -his circumlocution/throughout. I contend that if a' man |vith a 1 family of one, and possessing’a few calves on the run? shows an industrious will, he ought to be commended by all honest-minded men. -—I am, etc., Equity.

(to the editor).

Sib,- 1 -When the railway-Works started in this-district I thought I might, have a chance for a job as « ell as the rest, so I'went to To Aroha to see the boss, and dropped across a sandy-headed-.chap.with a wise lookingface who was doing " the deputy-boss, as the head man was off duty. I knew .that I had .to be hunable igspeech Iwhen/talking to .the Qivil service,, so I meeklylasked him to put my "name down for a job.. Tie sort bf pooh-poohed the idea ; too many on already he said. But, dear sir, says I,'l’m poor and want work, do .put 'my namoridown.', At last he give me a sheet of foolscap to Write on,-and told me to full name and the -number of my family, which in all number nine. I began to think my case a hopeless one, so I : got desperate and.said there might be something else in a few months, time. - I’ll see how things go] said he, and I left the office subdued by the almightiness of its surroundings. Things have gone on ever since, Mr Editor, and here I am still outside of noble co-operation. I thought I’d 'have another try on' - Thompson’s track, so sent in my name ' early so as to have first show ; but. its no go, they rubbed me off the list, for the reason that I wasn’t loafing about; the streets" helping somebody else-to do -nothing-olio’s got employment says 7 my lovely friends. 0 ye animated things don’t ye hnow that if I don’t work I can’t eat. Can j.’sP., can. C.E.’s justify themselves when bossing a show like this. .. Whereas your noble liberal principles of which they prate. Successful-i-Thompson trackers, when they, perhaps, get success by doing- a step dance roiind the boss' (a virtue I never learnt), and run oft the road men who have an equal 7 right- with them to work and live.; To come to a conclusion it looks to me as if co operation is Conducted in a Hasty Spiritandstinks of selfishness. I hope whoever bosses the fakement for the future will see that equal and just right to every* mafi is fully am, etc.,. ; Edj Yotfsim . Wißwa, ;V