STOKERS' WAGES.

Evening Star, Issue 11512, 1 April 1901, Page 1

STOKERS' WAGES.

TO TltE JBDTTOR. Sir,—The City Council have given practU cal consideration to their employes—all except the stokers at the gasworks. This hard-worked sand useful body of mm seem to be entirely overlooked. While opinions are strongly expressed dfaily in the papers in favor of bettering the conditions of labor in other walks of life, no chord beats in sympathy with them. This surprises me, and should, I think, be attributed to a general ignorance of the trying nature of their work. Peep into the gasworks either by day or night »nd you caji see men standing knee deep in burning cinders, and flamee like the infernal leaping from the retort into their faces and all round them. It is not unsual to see them afire from head to foot. What a consumption of boots and cloths* must be here. Working week after week in their alternate shifts, in the midst of blaring fire and aggravated dust, should run uhean into considerable expense for washing alone. No Sunday off for stokers, no holidays, and no 'cheap trips. The monotony of then* active lives during'seven full days in every week from year to year knows no change from Fire! Fire! Fire,! Though the gasworks is y the best-payinti department that -ihe Dunedin City Corporation have, the only remuneration the men receive for the above work is 8s 6d a day, the lowest rate of pay, I believe, given to any body of stoGr* south of the Line. At the present rate of high rents and dear provisiorißlilie stokers can have but. very little if more than a living wage. And it is a matter for regret that the City«Co>uncil, who seemingly have dealt fairly to the rest, of their servants, should leave the necesßrbv open to ah outsider to ventilate the stokers grievances.I am. etc., Cojjokial. March 30.