CO-OPERATIVE WORKS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 111, 14 May 1906, Page 1

CO-OPERATIVE WORKS.

A DEFENCE OF THE SYSTEM

INTERVIEW WITH MR SEDDON

Sjpeaking to a " Lyttelton Times" reporter, Mr Seddon Said that he wasnot at all surprised to see that there had been a renewal of the agitation against tho co-operative system of constructing public works, and a suggestion that the Government should revert to the old system of contract labour. No doubt, he said, those who have made fortunes in the past at contracting would like to have another opportunity of increasing their wealth. Another grievance is that those employed upon the works cannot fix their own prices, much as they would like to do. "There is, however," continued the Premier, " an incongruity in the statements of those who decry the co-operative system of working. They say that the men are earning too much, and in the next breath turn round and adversely criticise tho Government for not paying the workers sufficient." A fair wage, the Premier held, was a right and proper thing to give, and this the Government had always done from the inauguration of the system to the present day, and he intended to continue this practice. The colony was not getting its work done too cheaply, but Mas paying a reasonable price for it. The history of contracting in this and other countries demonstrated the fact that large fortunes were made on the one hand, and on the other many persons had been ruined. Under the contract system, sweating was the order of the day, and slumming was developed into a fine art. Against this was also the fact that some of the colony's railways made through t]ie most difficult country in the two islands had been made by co-operative labour at a lower price than any contractor could have touched. Not only was this so, but the quality of the work was infinitely superior to what it would have been under contract. -This applied-to both roads and railway works. In addition to these desirable ends, it must be remembered that under the co-operative system work was being found for men whom the contractors would not employ, and who would otherwise have been a burden upon either the State or their relatives. The contractors would not employ these-men, although they could do a fair day's work. ~ If the Government were to stop co-operative works to-morrow, in less than a month the outcry would be so loud that it would be compelled to resume them. Everyone in the country was entitled to a fair share of the work that was j going. If the expenditure of nearly two millions per annum upon public works had been all let out by contract it would simply have meant that the contractors would have brought in rnqn tg do t*)9 W° rfc t-rpm parts. These men would share in all the good things going whilst working for the contractors, and when their jobs were finished would simply clear out and go to some other unfortunate country where the'contracting and. sweating system prevailed. "The Government," concluded the Premier, ." has no intention of stopping the co-opera-tive system and going back to the sweating contract system."