Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1893.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4399, 21 April 1893, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1893.

Being tub extended hub or the WiIRARAPA DaIMT, WITH WHICH IT B TDENIIOA.L

rtiE West Coast lias been a district in which' Government influence hue been strong, and where 'the now labour doctrines of the Hon, Mr Seddou have been diligently followed. There co-operative labour has been in full Bwing, and what has been the result. The Wellington Evening Press says that the Board, weary of co-operation, of being dictated to by the proletariats, as they style themselves down there, and sick and sorry at the humbug of the whola thine, has the following resolution on its notice paper for. the next meeting i—"That in future all works required by " the Board exceeding in value £IOO, " according to Engineer's estimate, "be carried oub under the co-opera-"live system, as at present in.force " in the Public Works Department "—be hereby rescinded. 2. That all "other resolutions previously passed " dealing with the letting of contracts, 11 and now in the minute books, be "rescinded. 3, That in future all " works should be let in the ordinary " way—namely, by calling tenders by " pubjio advertisement, with the "proviso that the lowest or any " tender benotnocessarily accepted." In this district the co-operative system has not been so exhaustively tried as on the West Coast, but the Government have forced an interest* ing experiment ioconnection with the missing link in our railway, an experiment which appears to us to have been a disastrous failure. When it was initialed, some of the best hands in the district gave it a trial under the impression that a pound a day could be made out of it, but they soon realised their mistake and vanished off the scene, Then ten shillings a day men took a turn at it and after, a brief experience gave it beßt. The eight shillings a day men followed suit only to discover that it did not pay them, We believe that the system now yields four and sixpence per day, and if it falls muoh lower than this jt will come to pieces, All tho superior laborers in the market have thrown it up and it gravitates downwards into the hands of the inferior onen. It has reduced the standard of wages in the bush district from eight shillings per diem to four and sixpence 1 and even the working man cannot fee) proud of a system that does this. ;It proven to be unsatisfactory to ;bb(h employers and employes ' and has only to run for another year or two to break down altogether. On our railway north ofEketahuna, the earth-work will, to a considerable extent, be required to be; formed again, it will be so battered by stray cattle and the weather, before a permanent way can be laid,' that it will practioally.have. to bft constructed twice, Public money under the co-operatiye system is being literally squandered upon it. The Hon. Mr Seddon has been fair from one point of view. He has not paid more for a given jrieoe of work than that work is w.orth but the fragmentary manner in which the work is performed, and the enor- ■ J.

mous time: taken over-its ponßtrdcti'divmol'e its cost to the colony ex cesaive. The co-operative eyetem may under certain ; conditions be successful, but as. far as we 'can; judge the' conditions essential to success have been absent. It works out now into a distinot outdoor relief fund administered by the Sovernrnent for the benefit of pereonß who cannot get work in the open market.