The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1922. ORONGORONGO WORKS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11225, 2 June 1922, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1922. ORONGORONGO WORKS

An aocount of the .work proceeding at the Orongorongo tunnel under the Semple contract appeared a few days ago in the “New Zealand Times.” From that account it was apparent that the work was going on very satisfactorily. Clearly the work done was good and its progress rapid, and certainly the workpeople were contented and capable. The work is going forward under the co-operative system. It is not the first occasion of the employment of that system in New Zealand. As is well known, the system was brought into use under the auspices of the Public Works Department some thirty years ago. It was much criticised at its inception, as is the usual fate of new' things. During its career the system has fared variously, but it is beyond doubt that in its' farings there were some striking successes, The main fact about it, however, is that it was never tried on a scale large enough to cover some; complete public work of importance. Tlho Orongorongo tunnel is the first great work, to which the co-operative, system has been applied. The importance of it can be seen at a glance. The main work, the tunnel piercing the Orongorongo range, is some two miles in length, and much of the material it has to go through is hard rock. The difficulties are exceptional for a first experiment of any systein on a great scale. The situation is in the heart of a mountain forest wilderness, with out communications of any kind. The preliminary work required was the making of roads, to enable the main task of piercing the hill to be done from both ends, and as heavy materials have to bo carried to the scene of operation, it is easily understood that the preliminaries entailed a good deal of labour and much expert contrivance. Besides the loading, there was the work of housing the workpeople in a rugged wilderness, in a region, of considerable rainfall. That these preliminaries have been well done, and the main work of piercing the hill has gone through over 1500 feet from one ond and 100 from the other, in what may fairly be called “shipshape and Bristol fashion,” is a matter for congratulation.

The feature of the work that attracts the special attention of the observant visitor is the housing of the workpeople. They are, as our representative said in his account, practically as well housed as if they were in an up-to-date city. In the essentials of drainage, shelter, roominess, and general comfort they have all that can he reasonably desired. Hot baths they have as they come from work, largo heated racks for drying their working clothes, and good meals well cooked, thanks to a well-provided kitchen, are their everyday experience. Hero is one part of the secret of the contentment which seems to he the hall-mark of the place. It is much more. It touches the secret of Labour discontent all over the world, and particularly in Britain and some of the oversea Dominions. The discontent is of very long standing. It goes back, as a matter of fact, to the days when machinery, displacing handicraft, revolutionised industry. The immediate consequence was the herding of work-

people in throngs in the slums of great cities. Employers paid no heed to the necessity of providing for the housing of these throngs. Much convenience of communication, sanitation, and public; utilities were at hand, but nothing was attempted, and the herds of workpeople lived a degraded existence for years. They are, in fact, in the spe state now'. Had the principle of duty been grasped in that early day as it was grasped at Orongorongo, and there fulfilled in the far more difficult surroundings of a primeval wilderness, there would not have been as much Labour discontent today. It may well be doubted if there would have been any Labour discontent ~«t all. Housing, it is true, is only one of the conditions of the industrial situation. But it can be taken as tolerably certain that proper attention to that condition would have entailed similar attention to all other conditions. The point arises out of the past. But its application has not rested with the past stage. It impresses the present most strongly, for the lesson of the past is that the most important of all the development work of the present is the housing of the .people. Railway extension, reading, electric power—these, and many other great things, are all as nothing compared to the housing of the people. House the people, and the people on whose well-directed energy the future depends, and all other things, will come. Neglect to house the people, and the worst part of the stagnation incidental will be Labour unrest. The Orongorongo co-operation grasped this truth at the outßet. .It housed the workpeople, and the work is moving with a smoothness which in these days of unrest is marvellous.

Another great feature of the cooperative system which makes for' content is the high average pay. To this it has been objected that only men of exceptional skill and physical power are eligible. In fact, the system is said to create an aristocracy of Labour. The same objection is made to the contract system, under which the building of railways is confined by the contractors to “navviee,” who are men of exceptional skill and power, a crack corps, in fact, in the army of Labour. The objection fails at the outset, be. cause, like some proposed new departures, it ignores the natural differences among human beings. Men are not all equal naturally, and the best works of men must be given to the best men to work. That may be set down as the general law. But this general law is, like other general law, open to exceptions. These are grounded upon another general law 7 —that human power is always valuable and useful, and, moreover, has the right to employment ; has, in fact, the protection of the right to w 7 ork. The contract system does not provide for this exception. Rapidity is the mainspring of the contract system. The workers must keep a certain pace under it. Those unable must choose between being broken and being left. Time, on the other hand, is not the essence of the co-operative system. Under that the average wage can he arranged according to the average capacity, and can be so earned, in teams carefully graded. Thus will contentment based on real equality of earning he guaranteed by mutual effort, and there will be no danger of the over-speeding which in some countries has worked havoc among workers. Such is the general situation. There are, of course, certain classes of work which must be reserved for the exceptional worker, just as in all work there are certain posts always reserved for the exceptional worker. But the fact is not an objection to the co-operative system. Theoretically, that is the best system, of course. This work at Orongorongo is the first experiment of the system on the scale of a great work. It has, so far, done well enough to justify the belief that, if it is carried to eventual success, it may bring about a revolution in practice equal to a complete solution of the Labour problem to the satisfaction of all parties. In this connection, it must he borne in mind that this sort of co-operative work cannot be left entirely to itself. There must be co-operation with the co-opera-tors. That must come from the people for whom the co-operators undertake their constructive work. From them is expected engineering plan, direction, and co-operation at every stage. This expectation has been in this case fulfilled. The city engineer, Mr Morton, has supplied the necessary cooperation with skill, energy, conspicuous ability, and full realisation of all things necessary. *