A MAN FROM OHAKUNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13307, 13 October 1906, Page 6

A MAN FROM OHAKUNE.

"FATTENED PADDOCK FOR LAZINESS." fBI TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.} Wellington, Friday. A man from Ohakune, explaining that ,he was a navvy of 30 years' experience, interviewed a Post reporter yesterday morning. The visitor explained that he had been working for the past six months' " shooting papa" at Ohakun;, on .the North Island Main Trunk Railway, and had something trf say ,'aoout th*> types ; of labourers' sent to that region by the Government bureau. . " This winter it was the worst, class of men I have ever seen," the critic commented. " The place is a fattening paddock for laziness. They have got all the loafers in the country there." He submitted that the Labour Bureau did not exercise sufficient discrimination in sending up men to do navvving work. He contended that individuals who had done nothing heavier than " plucking geese, and peeling apples" were despatched to the North. These persons, who " hadn't the ambition of a mosquito," went at the " dead march" to the barrows, but got 8s a day. He stated that men, who can't lift a frying pan" are sent up ag' navvies. "Eight out of ten are that sort." The man from Ohakune had no fault to find with the officers on the spot. It was the system that excited his ire. He condemned the policy of engaging " new chums" on the 8s a day system, maintaining • that this policy spoilt them by tempting them to develop a " Government stroke,', the proverbial leisurely movement of the limbs and body. He urged that men should be put on contract work as soon as they came on the job, and thus they would immediately learn to cultivate a briskness which would be profitable to themselves and the colony. He maintained that energetic men on the co-operative piecework principle could earn 10s or lis a day, but energy was the exception rather than the rule. Sometimes good men arrived, but they often became purseproud when they had made £20 or so, and retired. Discussing types he said lie would prefer young men who had received a training in "physical culture." He would rather 'have these persons than farm labourers, because they would be more agile. The gist of his remarks was that operations were being hampered by incompetents.