THE STONEBREAKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9151, 5 September 1888, Page 5

THE STONEBREAKERS.

A TALK WITH ONE OF THEM. One of the stonebreakers in the employ of the City Council at the Mount Eden works, Mr. J. C. Jones, chatted with a Herald reporter yesterday respecting the decision to dispense with the services of those men on the Ist of November next. " There's neither justice nor wisdom in it," he said. " There are 42 stonebreakers, the majority of them old men, and our average earnings are from 10s to 12s a week, and then we have to find dynamite, and caps, and fuse out of that. Is 9d a day—that's nice, eh ? and yet we're satisfied with that, if they'd only let us alone. But they will give us no alternative —if the Council had come and said, ' Men, times are hard, and we want to retrench,' and had reduced our pay, it would have been much better. We have a horror of becoming recipients of charitable aid ; and then road metal is an indispensable article; it cannot be done without. If the Council want bricks, for instance, they must pay a price for them ; and here's an indispensable article, and when these poor old fellows are willing to give their last bit of strength to do this sort of work, why not encourage them ?" " I suppose the men employed at the works are in very poor circumstances " Yes, it's the last resource, you see. Noy, I pay (js a-week rent,* and I have 4s a-week left to keep house that's not much ; you wouldn't have much out of that to go to the skating rink, eh?" and the old man laughed. This reference is not quite clear ; the reporter is not a rinker (without the "d"). "The wives of some of the men help by their work : if it was not for the women, God help the men, I say. If it wasn't for some of the women here, I don't know how half the men would ce. Some of us manage to put a shilling into the Savings Bank now and then, but I can tell you it's very hard to do that. When Mr. McCosh Clark was .Mayor, he raised the price of the metal to 4s tid a yard ; but he had sympathy, you know. Upon my word, the price now is ridiculous. Mr. Reston wanted to take the work from t*.s altogether, until the able pen of your editor came to the rescue —ah ! the beautiful Press," exclaimed the old man, his face bearing an expression of admiration. " Have there been more than 42 stonebreakers employed at any time " Oil, yea, the number hay been up as far as 100, and they could have taken on 300 or 400. The Government have inundated the market with metal from their relief works, and there is not so good a sale for it now." " You see, the City Council have a large quantity in hand." There is some error in that: they have only this month's breaking, about 400 yards. Our services are to be dispensed with on the Ist November, and if we go and break ' on spec,' there will be no more metal carted from there til! about May, so that for seven months we won't see a penny. My age? My age is ou, but there are several men of 70 years, some "'J. and 75, and there is one man there 79 years old. Ah i 1 hope you won t know what it is tobe destitute in your old age ! If the stonebreaking is stopped, >.ve will have to apply to the Charitable Aid Board, ai-d. ugh !" with a shiver, "sooner than that, sooner than go to the workhouse, 1 th?uk i would commit suicide." " Why, that would be worse still. 1 ' " Well, yes, but we have such a horror of receiving charitable relief." We are informed that after the Ist of November, the date at which it has been determined to dispense with the stonebreakers, the Council will require metal, and will purchase it from the stonebreakers at the current market price. They wul have the preference, because where they are working is the most accessible place.