THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1890.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8362, 16 September 1890, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1890.

There is lurking in the minds of many of the wage-earners an idea that capital usurps far too large a share of the products of labour. The fact that so very few of the many manufacturing establishments which have been started in the colony have proved remunerative to the capitalists, or to the shareholders, does not in the least influence the minds of the workmen. Their reply is that the money has been lost by bad debts, or by imprudent launching out, or by heavy expenditure on buildings, etc. But there is one industry to which none of these objections can apply, and the returns from which are so accurately known, and can be so easily compared with the number of men employed that we are able to find exactly what each man earns as wages, and the precise value of the article he produces. We mean the goldmining industry. We have annual returns of the total amount of gold obtained, in ounces ; its value is easily reckoned, and the number of men taking out miners' rights, who are the only persons allowed to work on the goldfields is also exactly known.

It is pretty well known that the annual return of gold has for years past been steadily diminishing until last year, all the gold produced in the colony only amounted to 203,21 valued at £808,549— sad falling off from 1871, when it was 730,0290z valued at £2,787,520. But it is not so generally known that the yield per miner has also steadily diminished, and that the average earnings per man fell to £60 Gs lOd, for the year ending March 31, 1889 ; while for the year ending March 31,1890, they fell still lower, being only £59 Is Cd per man.

For convenience of calculation, let us call the average annual earnings v.. each miner during the past two years £60. Now, if we deduct the long holiday at Chistmas time, when the claims are protected for ten days, and add to these Sundays and the other holidays, we may reckon that the miners' working days do not exceed 300 per annum of eight hours each. The eight, hours system is most rigorously carried out on the goldfields. The average earnings per day, therefore, would be represented by 60 x 20-4-300 =4s a day. This is what the whole body of the miners produce on an average. Of course, there are lucky miners and unlucky ones ; some make little or nothing ; some make £3 or £4 a week ; some may make even more for a short time, but, taking them as a body, they get as much gold as would pay an average wage of 4s a day, out of which all the cost of tools, sluice boxes, winches, hydraulic sluicing apparatus, water races, timber (for drives, etc.), machinery on the quartz diggings for raising ore, crushing stamping, amalgamating, <fcc., has to come.

Now, if wo take the alluvial diggings in the South Island, where the problem is of the simplest kind, the puzzle is how the bloated capitalist is to pay the working miner 10s a-day, which is tlx* lowest rate of wages on the West Coast, and find machinery, etc., and yet get a profit on the transaction. So far, strange to say, the problem has not been solved. The sanguine capitalist thinks that by buying up the claims of working miners which have been paying them for years, and consolidating them into one big claim, he can make the thing pay a handsome dividend. Hundreds of thousands have been spent in paying men 10s a-day to dig up gold worth 4s, and hundreds of thousands or millions more will be so spent. It is the gambling instinct in human nature which leads them to speculate, and every one who has lived on a goldfield knows, often by bitter experience, how difficult it is to conquer this instinct. Every man on the goldfields knows that in the long run the Bank will and must win, or, in other words, that the working miner at 10s a-day must swallow up the capital, but still he hopes that he may be the lucky man —and so he invests the hard-earned savings of years in a mining speculation.

But the curious thing is that while the ordinary wage of the pick and shovel has never for more than a few weeks reached 10s a-day, and is now only 6s or 7s, the wages of the miner in the South Island have steadily remained 10s, in spite of the wellknown fact that his total earnings only equal 4s. ______________

to be talking 011 matters which | is caring anything about, while public interest is engrossed with a subjint which they cannot touch. Yesterday however, a movement was made. Mr. Perceval, one of the members for Christchurch, moved, "That with a view to the settlement of the dispute between tho wage-payers and wage-earners of the colony, the Government should at an early date invite employers of labour and labour association delegates to attend a conference at Wellington for the purpose of discussing the difficulty and arranging a settlement." The members werp so charmed with the idea of doing something, that the motion had a majority at once, and as the Government acquiesced, it was carried by 51 to 11. Some good may come of this, but we confess we are not sanguine. Who are the employers of labour to be invited The Union Company are connected with the Shipmasters' Association of Australia, and cannot act independently of them, while the labour unions are also affiliated with Australian organisations, and cannot agree to anything separately. Again, thorUnion Company cannot undertake to .act as representing all the employers of the colony. Here iii Auckland we have concerned in the strike the Northern Company, Donald and Edenborough, the owners of the coal mines, and many others. But if every employer met that the Government could think of, numbers of employers would not be represented, and those who met would have no authority to bind the others. As for the labour unions, the first questions would be, What did they want ?—What had they struck for 1— and they would have to answer that they wanted nothing more than they have been gettingthey had struck in oVder to compel the Union Company to secede from the Shipowners' Association, although they themselves were federated with Australia. Mr. Perceval said he believed that the leaders of the unions would suggest to the strikers that, pending the result of the Conference, they should go to work again. A. good many men in Auckland would like very much to go to work again, but cannot get the chance. That matter is not quite so open as Mr. Perceval seems to suppose. In all probability, the employers would say, we are willing to engage agaiq so many of the men as we require in addition to the men we now have, but these men, who left us suddenly, must come on our terms. The Government having now assumed the responsibility of summoning a conference would act wisely by doing as little as possible beyond that. If a conference assembles the Government should simply give the delegates a room in the Government buildings, and leave them to their own devices. It is curious now to see that some members wish the Government to direct the Railway Commissioners to declare an amnesty for all offences, and to take back the men who have been dismissed. This is a matter in which the Railway Commissioners would probably decline to be interfered with. It would be a very bad precedent for the Government to attempt to force the Railway Commissioners. It would greatly weaken their authority, because it would make it clear that the railway employes could at any time bring down Parliament and the Gover?>ment upon the Commissioners, even to compelling them to take back men who had been dismissed. The Commissioners would probably reply to any representation made by the Government, we gave these men the chance of remaining in the service by their expressing regret for what they had done in inciting to the disobedience of lawful commands ; they refused, and it would be absurd for us now to reinstate them without their giving the pledge we asked. That would be equivalent to saying that at any time they may, if they choose, do exactly as they have done, that is, incite men to refuse to carry out orders which it was expressly stipulated in their engagement that they should carry out if required.