A SLAVE-DRIVING GANGER.

NZ Truth, Issue 160, 11 July 1908, Page 6

A SLAVE-DRIVING GANGER.

A Bumptious Boss and the Workers.

This paper has had .occasion previously to direct attention to the sweating which obtains m the Governments Islington gravel pits, and hastens to return to the charge. Ganger Wellington, whose niggerdriving propensities w,ould give the late MM. WteJ»eiVfe.d feon Puke 50 yards »

the 220 yards Brutality Stakes, got his job apparently because he could get more out of the pit slaves for a given sum than previous task-masters. It is the darned arrogance of the man when he has got married toilers at his mercy that annoys this independent journal, which herewith anathematises a Government whose ehoftce of a ganger is based upon his capacity for., sweating. At this time .of the year, when road-making is postponed, harvesting and shearing are finished, and there are many unemployed owing to weather conditions, the greedy ■-. employer knows 'there is plenty ,of competition and dicltates his own terms to the men. One ■would imagine that a democratic governtment would discourage this sort of tlifing, !but when one finds it setting a bad ex,ample to private employers (who doesn't jreqjiire much encouragement,- heaven 1 knows) by making the hard lot of the ! worker still harder, the Labor Department!? conduct is held up for reprobation 'by the multitude, and the Government is ■ damned : herewith

WITH VIOLENCE AND INDIGNATION. iMost people m New Zealand remember Saturday, the 27th of last month, when ;tlie ' Anglo-Welshers fought ■ their way through the mud to equality with the wet iand sodden All Blacks. It was even worse 'm Canterbury, where the rain teemed down m torrents and everybody who diao't want to be laid up with rheumatic lever, or worse, got under cover. Humane owners of animals housed their dogs comfortably on the 27th ; but the men m the Islington gravel-pit hurled reeking shingle, into the waggons and cursed the rain, and the ganger, and- the day they were born. At last one of them straightened his - soddened back, and remarked, "This is too tough forme." The remark astonished the brutal Wellington, who bossed the job amplj^protected from the falling water. "This' is railroading," he replied, wrj>h contempt.. > To, which the man rejoined, "I've worked on as many railroads m the world as you have, but I've never had to work m weather Jilce this, unless it was special train service work, -which I would willingly do." The arrogant ganger, astounded at the insolence of a man speaking the truth when there were plenty of other slaves to take his job, told the dissatisfied person to get put ot the pit instantly, if not' sooner. ' The unspeakable cheek of these blasted working men was getting insufierable . ( The man threw down his shoveL ''You ought :iio he ganger over a crowd of Chinamen/.'' he >said. "Yoju're no glass," he added,; and he left an outraged ganger fin " the pit,

CHOKING WITH INDIGNATION. This paper \v6uld like to point out to 'the Government that the men m the gravelpit are human beings and are entitled to be treated as such. Everyone of them, is laying the foundation of futjure d.isease which is always the result of such exposure, and when . the disabled wretches come cap m to some local body for assistance they will have doled out to them with unwilling hand, a/ter thcJLr characters have teen searchingly > investi'gaxed, . meagre Assistance which is called "Charity," and' which the fat persons who. give it never worked j:or, . If,. the Government sets an example like this, what are we „to : expect jrom grabbing private employers whose profits depend upon the ill-treatment of their workmen ?