CALLED “HACKS”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 50, Issue 3056, 31 March 1941, Page 4

CALLED “HACKS”

TERM NOT APPRECIATED

CASUAL FACTORY EMPLOYEES

Racing men can readily state what constitutes a hack —a galloper that has not won over £5OO in stake money —but the phrase was used in reference to a man at the No. 2 Armed Forces Appeal Board sitting in Hamilton last week, and caused some dis-

cussion. y Evidence was being given by Mr W. Y. Kirkman, factory superintendent for the New - Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited, regarding a cheese factory employee, whose appeal was under review.- The man was, according to witness, classed as an

assistant., Mr J. W. Neate (deputy member of the board) 1 : “In other words, he is a ‘hack.’ ”

Witness: “I don’t like that word; it may be used in Taranaki, but we don’t use it in reference to our employees.

Mr Neate said it was a common'’ term in cheese factories, where it was usual for the manager to employ several “hacks” during the busiest part of the season, dismissing them as the supply Of milk to the factory diminished. The first “hack” would be kept employe’d longest, the second “hack” next and so on. The term was not used in a derogatory sense, but merely to classify the men who were casual employees.