The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4. THE SHEARERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 150, 4 October 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4. THE SHEARERS.

Shearing is the highest paid labor in either New Zealand or Australia. As the majority of sheep men are well able to pay good rates to get cut a .it in a hurry, there seems to be no rtason why the wages made during shearing-time should not be good. Shearers have quite an exaggerated idea of their importance and skill. Any strong man of any color could become an adept shearer in thres weeks, if he were properly instructed. The fact that a man who has not shorn sheep for nine months may put up a big tally on the first day's shearing is evidence t(ho-t it is not a matter for close and continued study and deep thought. We have in mind the ,: ringer" ot a certain shed who before shearing there had never been anything but a sailor. From the size oi the wail about the shearers in New Zealand at the present time it might be believed that if the men who have been doing other things besides shearing since last wool season were to close their bows ■the art of shearing would die out As a matter of common knowledge, the averaige shearer does not know what an ill-used person he is (until somebody—generally not a shearer^—tells him so. Naturally enough, the very- well-paid shearer accepts the invitation of the promoters of rows to obtain more for ihis annual burst of energy, and this class of man is responsible for the fuss that is being, made at the moment. The position of the Shearers' Union is that it will oibey the law, if the law agrees to its dictates. Shearers, despite any award, say that i&ey will not shear for less than a pound all round., so that it is quite obvious that the trouble .and expense of a hearing in the Arbitration Court was useless. The shearers, through their representatives, advance no particular reasons. They have simply been told that they are fools to let a chance of earning more money for a few weeks slip, and that is sufficient reason. The Union representative cabled to Australia to say that unionists 'here would not shear under the award and stating that the position was as 'before. The position is not, of course, as it was. The position is that sheep-owners must abide by the award and that the shearers may refuse to obey the law. If the Court had decided that the rate of pay should be one pound all round and the sheep-own-ers had refused to pay this rate, it is hardly likely that 'the sheep-owners would' have been allowed to defy the ruling. The only value an Arbitration Court award has is that both parties to l it shall abide by it. The futility of appealing to men who made, up their minds before a case is heard to disobey an award if it does not suit them shows "that the Act, at least in this case, fails |in its purpose. The Act has failed before, although it was primarily in'tended to make strikes impossible. It has done nothing of the kind. Workers have made tk> bones about disobeying the law, and. the law seems powerless to insist on obedience. The President of the Court ■has on some occasions been the target for the attacks of sections of people, and there seems to be no doubt that a sense -of deep irritation has been engendered in the Court itself. It has been suggested many times that an award that is disobeyed] by either party to it should automatically cease to operate. In the shearers' case, even though, it remains presumably in operation, one party takes no notice of it. It is, therefore, not worth the paper it is written on, except as evidence that one party to it has broken the law, and' is supposedly liable to some penalty or other. In the meantime, -the disturbers, who have engineered the farcical proceedings appeared to regard themselves as being in some degree heroes. It is quite possible that before the shearing trouble is ended the oemfidtent gentlemen who are pushing it may lose the love and esteem of tbo men who have 'been made to quarrel about this yearly spurt of work. It is also likely that many sheepownera, should they be unable to obtain the services of the exalted persons now defying the law, may muster a lot of double-fleeced sheep some time in 1.911', and that erven Mum the coiiuitry will not be ruinadt.