COMPLETION OF MAEREWHENUA ROAD WORKS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8252, 6 August 1895, Page 3

COMPLETION OF MAEREWHENUA ROAD WORKS.

TO THE EDITOU. Sin, — It miyiiot be generally known how 'he>o wo k3 were brought to an end. This I will ende-ivor to explain to your renders. The men were led to belipve that pay-day jvould ba on Friday, 26 th July. Mr B'rr, the engineer, ctme tip on Monday, 22nd, wo understood for the purpose ot measuring up for pay-day, but circumstances prevented htm froir paying lit the right time, so pay-d<y was put off until the beginning of the next week, meaning Monday, 22nd, or Tuesd«y, 23rd July. Those days cime m due course, but not piy-dty. Theti wo wete told I hero would bo no p\y until the whole of the work w^s completed. Mark, <i gang is now given a coniract which would last a month, presumably f r .i purpose. Fuither instruction* cauio that for a positive f.ict 'he men would be paid on the \n?ht of Friday, 2nd inst.. after the trim arrived >t Duntroon. la the meantime gangs of men were fulling out as their cutiacts were completed from Tuesday, tlie 30, h u't., until Fiiday, the 2nd ius«t. As they fell out ttiey went to their tents, and were kept there idle, some from Tuesday, the 30th ult. Others swelled tno number", unt'l on Friday, the 2ud in^t , eighty men were in the>r ten s eating the edge c ft the little thiy \uA made on the works. To proceed : Friday night cnne, tho ir.iin came, but, alns ! no money, and the reason, we ate 'old, is that the engineer cannot p >s*ibly get 'he nion-y from Wellington in time. Why these flimsy excuses and endeavors to gull the puor workman ? Thus you will see we have been pur off from Friday, the 26 h, until the 30th, aga'n until ihe 2nd. On ihe night of the 2nd a deputation was appointed to interview the en^i'ieer for the purp >so of explaining the necessities of the men, they as a whole being without sufficient food to keep them until Monday, ihe sh. I must s^y thti after hearing ihe plijjht the men we c in (he engineer did his beat for thorn. He procured a pass to get them toO-umru on Saturday morning, where they arrived, and received the muchdelayed pay on S turday a r ternoon. Or this pay, .md how the men were treated, 1 may explain at a fu ure time Thus about 80 of the 94 mi n were removed from the works ; but what of the other 14 who were kept on ? Argument may be advanced that they were kept to complete their contracts. Bunkum 1 These men had no right to be kept on, and far more needy cases put off. Why was not the contract noted above divided into four or five, or even eight parts, as the men were there idle, willing lo take them up and finish the whole work between the 30th and the 2nd infant, and thus curtail the expanses necessary to the keeping of high-salaried officials, which salaries must now go on, suffering no reduction until these 14 men are finished? Again, why was one gaug aljowed to go back and finish their contract and ano'her gang knocked oft in tho miJdle of a job ? Perhaps, "Young Man," who figured some time ago in your paper, can throw some light on this subject. Thanking you in anticipation. — I am, etc , Unemployed.