PAHIATUA RELIEF WORKS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3917, 19 September 1891, Page 2

PAHIATUA RELIEF WORKS.

One of the men recently employed on these works writes to the Post as follows:—We were discharged simply for not signing vouchers which only allowed ua a little more that one half of what was our just dues. We went to the Minister of Lands, stating our case. He referred us to Mr Barron, giving his word as a gentleman that we would receive jusvice. That gentleman put usoff from day to day for a considerable time, at length he informed us that the engineer of the works told him that there was nothing coming to us. We appealed to the Minister for Lands a second time, requesting the services of a disinterested surveyor to re-measure our work. He was good enough to consent to that survey and the report, of this disinterested engi* ncer has been in the hands of the Minister of Lands for the last three weeks or more. That report is favor" able to us, still we can get nothing from the Government about the works. There has never been such grO3S injustice done to any lot of poor working men previous to this complaint. We could not earn more than 2s or 3s per day, good practical navvies and the greater portion of us could not earn so much as would clear our tucker, lite vouchers Mr Birron holds in hand will prove this to be correct. There was no quantities, no plan, and no specification supplied to us. The Engineer measured our work every two weeks, and after he bad done so he went away without telling what we were to receive. Some six or eight days after an official brought us a voucher to sign, and if you refuse you are found guilty of insubordination. We can all prove this to be true. The Minister's reply to Mr Fisher is a very strange one. He says our work cannot be measured now because it is finished. Yet thai is the way the Engineer and his staff measures. There is no difficulty in re-measuring our work. With a good foreman or inspector who knows his business and is supplied with a working plan, he would be able to tell each gang the depths of the various pegs, sc that the men would not have to go over the work a second time. If such a man was on this work a great many ( families hard up for the necessaries of life would be comfortable. There are some of us unable to get food, and if the Government had told us in the first place they could not recognise our claim we would have looked lor employment elsewhere, * but Mr Barron told us to call from day to day, simply to give the engineer of works timo to rectify the mistakes. * Surely the engineer that has done the re-survey, being a man of long-standing and go id character, his word is as good as the Government engineer, and his report ought to be taken into consideration. Besides there are some of us who think w« are capable of measuring our work. Mr Barron says they admit no mistakes .in his departmect, but if the vouchers he holds were perused by some trustworthy person they would a tale unfoid, so would Mr Beere'a report if it were published. This work is let in 10 chain sections to gangs of mostly six men. Two of these men may not be much good at road-mak-ing, though they may be very good bushmeo. The bush has to be felled before the road commences, and the foreman of «i orks, if he so wished, could seleet these good bushmen and keep them at it. On the other hand, there may be two lazy men, yet you had to put up ' with them. You are not allowed to give them a chain to themselves, so as { they would not loaf on you. The Engineer says it is too much trouble to i measure separate, yet he measures every chain when the work is done. We think such men ought not to be in charge of works of this kind. We were expecting more liberal terms from our Liberal Government. Yet the road is costing plenty, the money which is going in clerical work. Mr Saunders, Mr M'Guire, or any other contractor can do with one man, while it tnke3 a half dozen on this work besides the clerks in the big buildings. We could write pages on the mismanagement of this work.