"SPIELER" OR WHARF LABORER.
! TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln your last night's issue I see arraigned at the Police Court a person charged under the Gaming and Lotteries Act, and described as a spieler with a very bad record, yet in the next breath he is described by the detective as a wharf laborer. This is a slur on that hard-working and (take them all in all) decent class of workers, composed mostly of retired seamen, but who, through the action of some employers, cannot debar such characters as the accused from coming amongst them and taking the bread out of their mouths. When strolling down the wharf I have often heard the men complaining about such fellows coming amongst them, and have expressed my surprise that they did not do something to hinder them, as they only come for a day or two's work to prevent them being taken up under the " Vag." There is a wharf laborers' union, and I cannot understand why they do not grapple with the matter. I should say it is one of their duties to preserve the character of the union. Unless something is donethe public will brand all wharf laborers as rogues, vagabonds, and spielers.—l am, etc., M'M. Dunedin, April 6.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18990407.2.53.3
Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 10900, 7 April 1899, Page 4
Word Count
208"SPIELER" OR WHARF LABORER. Evening Star, Issue 10900, 7 April 1899, Page 4
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