SWEATING THE OLD STONEBREAKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 19, 23 January 1897, Page 4

SWEATING THE OLD STONEBREAKERS.

A makdate has gone forth from the City Council to the stonebreakers on- Mount Uden that henceforth no heap of metal will be accepted or measured unless every stone can be passed through a ring, 2J inches in diamoter. Hitherto, although 2J iucbea

was the standard size, there was no such hard and fast run, and probably tbo average has beon about three inches. The men, we are assured, have nob averaged mora than ten shillinge per week, at the price paid, 3s 6d per cubic yard, and although this very low average is due to the fact that moat of the men are old, vre are satisfied from inquiries thab a strong ablebodied man could not earn more than 3a ba to 4g per day, working eight hours. A cubic yard represents a large body of stone, ana _orth*3s6da yard the mon have to proTide all tools, drills, dynamite for blasting, aad caps. Formerly, thoy made a small addition to their incomes by selling at a shilling a load, for ballast, .tone quarried oub which was too porous or otherwise unsuitable for road metal. Now. the Council carts this material away and allows the men nothing for the labour of getting it oub. j Tho Council is paying 4a 6d per yara to two men who are employed on tne mountain breaking metal small enough to go through a two-inch ring, and tne other stone-br-Akers declare •«••*. *° comply with the new regulation they will have to break their metal quite as small as that for which these men receive an extra shilling per yard. Thoy will have to examine and test almost every stono, and if one splits ofla fraction over 2* inches, they musb give ,ib another crack, producing perhaps thrae or four small fragments. If the Conned wants this metal tosmall and uniform, it ought, the men say very justly,, to* pay a battel■price. The price has already been brought down to bho margin of starvation, and another turn in the screw will la.dAgood many indaatrioua, independent old fellows on the funds of the Charitable Aid Board, a step by no means conducive to civic economy and to be condemned; on humauibanan sixty men, mostly old, and many of whom have seen better days, aasembled en the mountain yesterday to discuss their troubles. They finally decided to wait in a body upon the City Council at_ita next meeting and submit their case. The ukase which has caused all this commotion was h-saod, we understand, because in a few cases metal has been taken over and epread which was too large to set. But as one old Btonebreaker, who has Dasaed bis three score years and ten, pointed out, during the eighteen years he has worked on the mountain there haß beon little or no complaint about the size of the stone, and to imposo such a severe condition as bhab now insisted upon because some little deviation from the standard haa occurred ia harsh in the extreme. It has been stated to the Council that able-bodied men can earn a living wage at 3s 6d per yard. Now. there are^two ways by which this may be tested. Firsb of all, let the pay sheets of the men employed for the past three months be averaged showing the number of hours the mon have worked and the money earned, and if thatia not deemed satisfactory, let the Council select two good men and set them to.work to quarry their atone and break ib. We are told that the shattered atone of all sizes which was made by tbe machine when worked under the außpices of the Council cosb on an average aboub 6s par-yard. For hard, sound, hand-broken metal, every piece broken small enough to go through a 2JCn rinp, men are' being osered 3a 6d per yard. Ia the municipal corporation wholly without bowel, of compaseionf '"-___