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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4863, 29 October 1894, Page 2

| - fjijJ \y"qo%ille i &'aiii!'iicr, a Liberal organ, toll.s a pitiful tale about twenty-three .co-operative labourers the Wopdyiilo pud flf. thii lino,

sober, strong, muscular men who bave been slmmofully treated -in fact sweated by our paternal Government, The price for their work is so low tliftt tliey have only been able to earn twenty-five shillings each per week, and to addfurther to their troubles some of them have been discharged and compelled to ioin the ranks of tlio unemployed. No doubt the twenty-three men have a grievance, but their grievance is no worse than that of hundreds of other men about the Colony.' Times are so bad that men taking; contracts privately are well satisfied .to earn five shillings a day. There are strong men all over the Colony who arc glad to get regular employment at five shillings a day. The Government have hamstrung production in New Zealand and filled the country with idlo, hungry men who will work long hours for five shillings a day. Though nominally the old standard of-wages, seven shillings a day, is still the current rate, only a few picked men receive it. Wages havo fallen undor the rule of the present Ministry, and must fall till there is a chaugo of Government.