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Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 205, 7 July 1893, Page 6

[The editor is not responsible for opinions expressed by correspondents.] TO TIIE EDITOR. Sir,—ls it the usual thing for a selection committee to go into a field of play during a game of Football, and obstruct players, encouraging certain players and instructing them what to do. The selection committee often act as umpires or referees, and when not taking the above position ought to be off the field of play, and lot each man play on his merit It is not usual for the selection committee to stand all together, one spoiling the other’s idea, but generally they take different sides of the field, Yours etc. One of the Players. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Is it really a fact that the Kauri Comany at Aratapv are going to appoint a timekeeper for the little house on the wharf to find out how many hours a week is lost in that place ; and that they then intend to strike a general average and deduct the time from the workmen's total ?—I am, Sir, Enquirer. [Ed, Does not this query arise from your own imagination ? If so it is a pity you did notr place your name to it, for your ingenuity might have led to your appointment as general manager.] (To the Editor). Sir. —In an Auckland paper I see it stated as the evidence of Patrick Connolly ‘ that Mr Harding really practices the truck system in compelling diggers on his lease to deal with storekeepers on the ground, as he refused to renew the license of a man who dealt elsewhere.’ There is evidently some mistake here for Mr Harding has no leased gronnd, neither does he care where a mau deals as long as his quarterly royalty is paid. Mr Eitzpatrick. a digger on Harding’s field, gave that gentleman credit for his manner of dealing with diggers, and I desire to do the same, so ask you to contradict the above statement which is false, and a slander on Mr Harding, whom I have always found to be fair and above board. —I am. Aoroa (To the Editor). Sir, —It was pay day this week with us [Ed Send along your sub. then.] and some new capers were introduced which if not a truck system come very close to it. Would you please allow me to place the circumstances before your readers and the police. Since the passing of the Truck Bill we have not until now had any cause for complaint, but this new caper is pretty tough. Some men living at a distance left work at 5.20, but their pay was not forthcoming till 620 p.m. It has recently been discovered that on our ramshackle shanties which have been paid for over and over again some odd days of rent had been left unpaid by the irregularity of our fort-nio-htly payments and bills were rendered us for this. When applying for our wages we were told of the amounts said to be due for rent" and asked for permission to deduct. Some of us when applying for our wages in our proper turn were told that there was an account against us and our wages were vvithheld’and we had to stand on one side till a latei" period, and this, too, when our wages were at least four days overdue. Now is this not contrary to the Truck Act ? I take the intention of that Act to be that when wages have been earned they shall be paid in full without any consideration of contra accounts. If ready money is such a necessity why not apply to.the employees for a loanj If the Act has been broken then I think "the police should take the matter up, for if action is to be ; left till workmen themselves lay a complaint the law is almost useless, as a sufferer can only move at the risk of losing his work and being tabooed by employers all round. Hoping you will give this a place,—l am & Truck.

(To the Editor). Sir, —As I did not see the Gumfields’ Commission here, and as I am a girmdigger, and the cry is now * Austrians,’ I would like to say a word in the line of gumdigging. If the Government wishes to license us I think five shillings a year would he quite enough. There are about forty to fifty men digging here, and the average earnings is about twenty-five shillings weekly ; they are men that have wives or parents to support. The County Council here consider gumdiggers should pay a license fee of one ponnd per year. It is easy seen these gentlemen never dig gum, or they would not be so ready with their pound. Gum is now a good price, hut we don’t’know what day it will come down. There are a few storekeepers here now who reckon that gum land should he cut up and sold. Good on you, Mr Storekeepers ! If you can get families settled around your stores ye would do a big trade: hut what about us gumdiggers who would take up an acre of good land that never had gum on it ? 'Where are we to make a living, and what should we pay a license fee for ? Give the Austrians a spell ; for the greatest harm that can be done is the selling and leasing of gum lands. There is a lump of land taken up here—from three hundred to six hundred acres—on the pei’petual lease. This land would have supported us gumdiggers here for the next three years, and still it is held over by one man ; the same land would not grow grass if it had all the boiaedust in Auckland on it. This is not the only piece of laud held over in the same way. What are these men taking the land for? You don’t know? I will tell you : In about two or three years men will he glad to pay five shillings a week to he allowed to dig on these lands ; some men here have been paying it already. If you would start from the Heads to the Bluff—it is about seventy miles I believe, mostly all gum land —you would find an acre here and there fit for making gardens. If gumdiggers were allowed to build homes and settle on ihsm as long as they paid their five shillings yearly, I think there would be lots of them making homes for themselves ; that is, allowing them an acre or two each. Mr Harding, I believe, has ten thousand acres of gum land for sale, and I think the Government should buy it up, and all other gum laud that is for sale. I hope the leasing and selling of g*um lands will he put a stop to, for the only crop that will he got out of them is kauri gum.

A few lines about Austrians. I refer you to their own statements. They make two or three pounds a week, and it is well known they have been digging here for years; and yet these men state that when they make a little money they’ll settle down here. Does it take hundreds of pounds to settle d own ? What have these man done with their money? Is it likely when they can live in their own country for five shillings a week that they are going to settle down here when it costs them fourteen shillings a week? What have a good many of them done already? Left for their own counfry, and every one with a few hundred pounds. Why didn’t these men settle in this country : J I don’t know of an Austrian settlor in the place ; they have no intention of settling here I think the only way of stopping them would he to make them pay ten pounds yearly. If they can make a hundred pounds and more, surely they can leave ten pounds of it in this country. Why tax us gumdiggers who spend all we make at it ? It’s easy for those men to save money when every shilling they make is banked, while most gumdiggers having large families to support have a poor show to save money ; it takes them all their time to live. I am sorry I did not see the Commissioners whilst here, and show them the ground which some people are taking up, and also explaining more than what I have mentioned here. Hoping the Gumfields’ Commission will he the cause of making the hardships of the gunadigger a great deal easier than they are at present,—Yours etc , D. o’Sullivan, Te Kopuru.