THE BOOTMAKERS' STRIKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8556, 2 May 1891, Page 3

THE BOOTMAKERS' STRIKE.

TO TIIE EDITOR.

Sir, —I notice a deputation _ from the. Operative Bootmakers' Union waited on Mr. Snera on the Bth of April. The burden of complaint was not that the pay was not high enough, but that it was not so high as in the South, which was met by the other side stating that the Auckland boots were not sa well finished as in the South, only pes; boota (outsiders may infer a sort of slop or in'erioc article), on which men can earn from £2 to £3 6s a-week for 48 hours' work, as was stated, and if they (the employers) had more to pay they would be obliged to import. Can there be better illustration of the pernicious working of protection ? Men by unions and coercion get up a fictitious rate of wages, to meet which they must drive the imported goods out of the market: by a protective tariff. Now, I would ask is this fair to men roughing iti in the country, where they can seldom, earn half those wages, and have longer hours in all weather and fewer comforts. Is it fair they should be made ta pay union and protective prices for boots ob other necessaries while the price of all they produce is regulated by what it will sell for in the outside markets of the world, with carriage and other expenses deducted. And not only must unions be protected from foreign competition, but they must be protected from the rising generation, for our youths are not to be free to choose what trade they rntiy wish, for only a limited number will be taken or: as apprentices, no provision being made for the old men dying out, or an increase of trade, so if trade increases (which is not likely under the circumstances), or the old men die faster than the young ones are taken on, we will have no one to make boots and no money to buy or to im-< port them. Of all tyranny the greatest is to' prevent men from honestly earning their bread, and that is what the unions are doing* and raining, as fast as in their power, the trade of the country. The country is exporting ten millions % year, and is independent, and might boycott the towns which export nothing, but the thought is too contemptible, as two blacks will not make a white, neither should the country spoil its nose to spite its face. We can only hope bettei counsels will prevail.l am, etc., I.M. Mangapai. April. ? P.S. — all the wages are divided amongst the few what is to become of the many ? An application was put in a London paper foe a copying clerk at 26s a week, and there were 2000 applications in three post deliveries (a contrast to the strikers), and mans of them University men.