WAITING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 6 April 1909, Page 1

WAITING.

THE WORKLESS 400. BAROMETER OF INDUSTBY. The industrial barometer is apparently fallling steadily; indicating, if not tempest, at least stress. In companywith Mr M'Laren, M.P., a "Post", representative yesterday had a peep : at the instrument which is on view inj the "donkey room. opposite the ferry' wharf. The reading was a little j unfavourable. .Hundreds of human; horse-power lay idle about the room;, waiting for the call to torn that 1 power into such strenuous energy as cargo and coal-lumping demands. At 9.15 a.m., over 400 men — the strong; young, the tough, middle-aged, many; nationalities, filled the long room with their presence, and the smoke of the; pipes that fail not and the hum o_j monotonous conversation. Bnt too; many wharves were empty, (the cargoforeman would be in prosently to sayj how much) waa all too little ,t 0 giv&j each man a share, be his need ever so! necessitous. More fortunate- those; comrades in industry who had gone to work at 8 o'clock, and were now perspiring but content. Less .fortunate they wh 0 waited in the long " donkey-room " until the word went? forth that further .waiting would- bei useless, for the day was bringing no- ] thing for their big strong hands, and. consequently though to the pockets. And there are the missuses, and the children, and — the winter. HOW THEY WAIT. They have been described before, many times and often: these wharf workers and such, and all the European word over they differ but little; but each observer may find something before undiscovered, and always this humanity, to .in outsider- suggestmore than a superficial interest. There wore the mniv careless and indifferent, who banged checker. nnd dominoes, laughing whole-heartedly. To them the work being out of sight was out of mind. Then the more sensitive one=, a little fearful, obviously j imirsint' their double ami obtaining a sad satisfaction from their burden. These sat mostly with hopelesji-looking shoulders against the brick wall, and saw nothing and no one but a doubtful future. And ns a third class were the big thewed, clean-skinned toilers whose general expression of eyes and smile was comfortably optimistic. Confident in their muscles, these men look, ed into the future, to-day or to-mor-row, or many to-morrows, with no misgivings. If not to-day, then some other time; and they would be there on hand, always fit and ready. THE CALL TO WORE. Suddenly, at the south end, there was a word passed, and a rush. Checkers and dominoes gave little heed, but there waa a crowd waiting the cargo foreman of a big steamship company as he took up his stand on a small seat, book in hand. Thick and thronging, rank on rank, the men waited, for few could be chosen. An intercolonial liner with 500 tons of cargo in her holds, waited outside, and some 40 men (six gangs of six and four crane hands) were required. The official turned a discrimin- : ating eye over the upturned and, in j many cases, anxious faces.-HHe«nnminced the boat. Then i "John , No. 1 hatch," and from the back a man^lid away. Expeditiously, discriminatingly, the eye roved, and tha names!-, were rapped out and entered in the book, and just as expeditiously the lucky chosen rattled downstairs to a day's work, with perhaps 12s at the end of it. Soon the two score required were picked out. The other drifted away, Some to linger about in the hope of, something turning np ; others towards home* or.a more congenial atmosphere. For .those that remained at the room theife *was a small "hoker" from the coast tb' be worked, but that meant about three hours' work ; no more. All to-day brought for the 400 was the intercolonial boat and the '•hooker," and when these were divided the spoil per unemplojred-man was meagre. LESS WOKE, MORE MEN. The cargo foreman spoke straight concerning the state of affairs as he knew them. Things were not at all promising. As compared with the same t.me last year the outlook was not happy ; as far as came under his •urisdiotion the quantity of cargo arriving, tad decreased 33 pei- cent., while the number of I "hands" had increased to »»*"«£ tent What the small coastal boats , brought in was usually only work for a couple of hours for one gang of men. A ,oil foreman indicated similarly. Last v"ip the mr-n employed by his company Erased 350; this year it was more ft .a 8 hundred !«=>. A dozer, hands. |,f, for Australia last week. «"»*! oth *™- mn- representative was informed, wi.l follow. I SKILLED UNSKILLED. j Even among the cargo^idlers there ire. the recognised skilled woiKerp. Nrtur-Hv tucs. men get most of what U rAI fimply by reason <>*.««» expels in different branches of the w.V-k. The goods being on. the spot, they must, of economic necessity, be -erond U quickly as hands an ensines ran do so, and so the cal tc the 1,,,-ov, and the sling* comes oftenei to the experienced than to the rank and file So says the ~argo foreman, who, re. oo rising somewhat of a hardship for the rankers, at the same fame appredrtes the demands of the situation and „b S accordingly. There is as would te anticipated, a murmur of discontent always audible, but *« «•*« -^ voidable The experienced stacKer, in a day's work. wiU perform much more than the .icweomer. A CROWDED MARKET. Mr M'Laren has 1800 names in his r,o-ket ledger, whose owners are jostW in the 1 crowded labour market for a lfving, and the number is being added to every day. And the reason-why and wherefore? Tradesmen, squeezed out ot their own comer by varwiis «£ KUicif,*. swell the geneial ranks. With The supr?y has swamped the demand.