THE SHEARERS DISPUTE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10062, 9 August 1910, Page 5

THE SHEARERS DISPUTE.

(To the Editor). Sir, —Will you kindly grant rre space to reply to *Bush" re the shearI ing dispute, in which he states the demands of (he shearers aie exorbitant. He then goes on to sUte that j the average rate <>f pay tor manual labour is close on I.os without board. I think if t e had stated 8a he would nave been nearer the mark. How-

j ever, consistency is a virtur, and if | "Bush" is out to deal with the j shearers' demands I will afk Mm to ; stick to the point, and I wish to here j inform "Bush" that the shearers are not the intolerable class which he would ask the public lo believe them to be; but, on the other har.d, a j class of aren who are reasonable in their demands, and keeping well in sight the fact that they they have not attemped to impose a tax that the wool industry cannot afford to bear. He then goes on to pokt out that if the shearing could be spread over nine months of (he year, and talks of a comparison. This is mere

conjecture, and I will again aek him to confine himself to existing circurn- ' stances. He further states that an expert shearer can average 120 sheep per day. but confines this contention to expert shearers. Then I ask Mm. where does the average shearer come in. "Bush" further states that *ie is not a land monopolist, but a small • farmer, and states that there will be very few shearers required among us farmers this year. Then, in that cise, he will have nothing tj complain about. If "Bush," as fce states, does not wish to go into detail, if he will make his identity clear, this scribe will be pleasedf to debate this question with him whenever convenient, and as a shearer of

twenty-four years'experience, I wish ti inform "Bush" that if those are his ideas, that he has a very scanty idea of what a shearer's life is, and the conditions a shearer has to contend with.—i sm, etc., ALEX M'LEOD.

(TO the Ulaitor).

. Sir,—ln your correspondence col[utips of this morning's issue appears a rambling statement in connection with the si earers* dispute, signed bi "Bush." Now, sir, I challenge "Bus'iV to disclose his identity aad sign his coirect baptismal appellation, and I v\il', I have no doubt, convince him and your numerous readers that he is totally at sea with his contentions. I leave the medium of choice with my friend "Bush** whether such be an oratorical debate, or by correspondence.—l am, etc., E. WILMORE ABBOTT, Sec. Shearers' Union.