WHO ARE THE HARVEST WORKERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2183, 31 December 1885, Page 2

WHO ARE THE HARVEST WORKERS.

■ We wonder what it is thatiritparti3he; \ curious quality of industry to awy^eoplet;.; No animal except "a beaver man in the totally uncivilised and; fore, presumably natural, condition J Sjlbqij popular English view that it'ia iii somet wayM&ent in race, that black)men;are ; i very lftfev, brown men \ny'i'o\i>w'rajs} ratner.Jaiyj' and white men • lazyish,]i while the Englishman alone-love's'work j for itself, jg palpably untrue, V;';&; .• • Englishmen,. : .to. begin with; the of the whifeTrace.*; ThiJ.elgian peasantry, French peasantry, beat thejiA hUIow ih' 'the pojver of persistent, monoTft A long-,;. continued^ application to; disagreeable '': work. They labor, take them all round, : \. three hours 'm the' day 'longer 'than, average Englishmen, who, indeed^are )■'■! rather fierce'workers, possessed of, special ,i energy, rather than industrious" men. . vyij The English can get quantities of'work :j and good:workone, but they! will only (j work six days in Beven-they try harpVto .< ,get another in each week, and do get a Thalf; one, and they are savagely irritable J about long hours, which Continentals ': bear quite placidly. When fight for a day lasting from lsjft.; and when tlieycanriot, they will strjp rather '' than,bear't\vo unusual hours aweeif. >'. -. We greatly doubt if JlngMlaborera :■ would toil for any wages -for 15 hours a:,. day, asihe Auyerjpats. di> \ and are quite?"' sure thfey would M somebody, if forced'' ■ to work 14 hoursin stifling dens, as the" I ailk thravj#s. of North Italy are. they shirk some trades because'the 'work ; 't is too hard, and-they have not only a ' monopoly in then- own bakeries and sugar ; refineries, but do no fair share in\either of ■ them. The Germans arid Soojajfoo three - parts of the work. '•.•' t7l .'■ -VC _ The Englishman's idea: of rfeing'. in ]M indeed, is to be-free of heavy woir.4 and' ho shares the feeling of the '. Who,, as a great American, eniplover of labor testified before, a committee "of the'' House ol Commons, are, as laborers in ■' n\Ui, States, of no use at all. (They, all become masters in two ; years. As to" the yellow races, who ought to be % jusfc lazier than Europeans, they beat them altogether.

.-We suppose .that there w Chinese, -but.the imn^omajority. of that vast people I\avp,aji unequalled power, of work;, cajet nojthing about' hours, and sAlojig as, they are paid, will go"to wifch'a; dogged, steady persistence inloifffor. 16,' hours a ; day, such a,s no European can rival,.' . ' :.

No Wish ship, carpenter will worJc' J like a Chinese, pa laundress will wash'as ' S many clothes., and, a Chinese compositor ■ 1 WY,erysp;oii b.o expelled for over-toil r I English''chapel"oithe We. .Tha ; l Ohmese peasants irad; boatmen work all ■ 4 day, and every day, and, in fact, but for '■'"' untiring ifld.ns ; %,.tho closely packed'"■' : i\ masses, of Ohjna could-not be flusii&d as ' ■'■•' '•' they are, 'Mh-;. Of the brown races, the Arabs ;»#illy. prefer abstemiousness carried toastarv-' : ■ingpoint to continuous labor; but the j' moat numerous brown people, the Indian,: -1 labor unrelaxingly forsevenby-geven hours :; ' V a week.. They are often called, lazy by • I unobservant Europeans, because they.. , ;: :'- enjoy the cool of the evening; but they ' go to work before four [in the mornine, ''■ and work on till tl|ree, only eat o# : the wephd meal'btt; after'dark,' They take, too, no weekly holiday, ' '