Tribute To England's Roadmen

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, 19 February 1947, Page 3

Tribute To England's Roadmen

"In the west of England" said s well-known farmer in a recent EB( overseas broadcast, 'there are old quarries which, provided the str>nc for all the local houses and even for, the great buildings in the city oi London. The quarry men were craftsmen. They h;-d a closed shor which only passed from father u legitimate son. Even to-day. they retain many of their rights anc customs, but the stone they quarry seldom goes to cathedrals, or churches, or even houses. Some is used for gravestones, but a great deal more is crushed by giant machines, coated with tar, and rushed by lorry to the road gang-. The farm worker has always made jokes about the roadmen—nil based on their proverbial laziness. The local gang went on strike because there were only six wheelbarrows between eight of them, which meant that two had to stand no. A roadman always nulls his wheelbarrow instead of nushing it because he hates the sight of it. All these alleged jokes are libels, of course. Stone is cruel, unkind stuff to handle. It jars all the muscles if you have to hit it, and wears your hands to raw meat. Tar spraying on a hot day must be purgatory, and working in sixty-mile-an-hour traffic cannot be too good for the nerves. I like roadmen, but I am sorrv that so many of our best agricultural workers are "going on the roads. 7 ,