Our Civilisation

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 496, 24 December 1948, Page 8

Our Civilisation

T the age of 10 John James. Feak was thinning turnips for tenpence a day. At 13: he was down the pit, ponydriving 12 hours a day: for 9/4 a week. Together with. the contributions of Dad and John’s brother, who were also down the pit, this made a family income of £3 a week, which kept eight. Feak left the pit at the age of 21, in 1917,

with a bellyful of mining, and went into a steel works as a labourer at 26/6 a week. His parents didn’t like him leaving the pit. After World War I, our civilisation being what it is, he was out of work four years and 10 months. He was luckier than some. He’ paid ‘the rent by playing "amateur" football and cricket, but he was hauled into court for non-payment of rates. He felt badly about this, but the Magistrate was a good man, and ordered htm to pay one shilling a week until he was back in work. The firm took him on again and he married. His wife, a careful manager, built-him up from seven stone to 10 stone. He became pit foreman, and at 57 is in charge of the ladle, pouring steel into the ingot mould. After tax deductions he makes £7/14/- a week, for which he sometimes works fourteen. and a-half hours a day. He is still paying rent. His wife had an illness which cost £100. So he’ll go on working until the firm doesn’t want him any. more. He’s been a strong union man all his life, Conditions are better in the industry now, and he’s more concerned with raising output than with nationalisation. He’s a stable character; a lifetime of getting up at 4.45 am. to do a day’s hard, hot, dirty, ugly work hasn’t made him want to murder anyone, He feels he has helped create some of the wonder and magic of our civilisation. The BBC, broadcasting his life in the series Meet the People didn’t feel it necessary to point out how black this magic is.