SQUATTERS AND SHEARERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 152, 16 October 1876, Page 2

SQUATTERS AND SHEARERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING MAIL.

Sir, —A persistent warfare has been carried on during the last eighteen years ; between the employer and employe in this annual industry. Eighteen years ago shearers received as high as 30s. for shearing a hundred sheep. Wool growei's were glad to get the clip off any way, so difficult was it to obtain men who understood the craft. A few Tasmanians, Australians, and Maoris formed the chief ring of the shearing industry. By-and-bye, however, the price came down to 255., and 225. 6d., and eventually it reached 16s. Bd., at which it was held for one season at least. . Shearers have now arrived at a similar epoch, hardly, jnerhaps, so disastrous to the woolgrowers, but" sufficiently dark ahead to warrant economy and precaution. The fall in the price of wool is insufficient v cause to the sheepist for the in the price of shearing, and 1 cifiSot help agreeing with him that the rate of 16s. Bd. per hundred, with fcol and lodging added, is a very great inducement to skilful shearers, the fair average of whom are able to clip 100 daily, while many of them exceed that number. lam far from wishing to see the scale of wages reduced, but think that the question of work and wages should have a fair balance, and looking at this question without prejudice from many years of practical experience in wool-sheds, amongst men and masters, I consider that the shearer who makes his 16s. Bd. a-day is very well paid indeed. The work is hard, admitted; but, for that matter, what work honestly rendered is not hard? And what work, after all, yields so great a result 1 Again, the squatter finds work for a considerable number of men, at i reasonable wages, during the year, who have this opportunity to make a fair addition to their incomes. The proverbial prodigality of shearers is the great reason of the combination for an extortionate labor tariff. Of course, there are some j very worthy exceptions; but, as a rule, the easily-obtained money finds its way into the dens and sinks of the nearest township. I see by the (Hago Daily Times of the 11th, that a Chinese merchant in Mi Iboume has offered to send over 300 of his countrymen to shear our sheep at 15s. per 100, and I am informed that the squatters in Otago and Canterbury, although loth to exchange our local shearing ring for Celestials, have determined to accept the offer, should they be compelled by the fatal obstinacy of the ring. It is a well-known and recognised fact that the Chinese are a skilful, painstaking, patient people, and capable of becoming clean and fast shearers, besides good winders and sorters. If our shewing ring think themselves masters of the position, they are woefully mistaken, ana . if they will £ake the trouble to renew, they will see that, in contending with the wool-grower, they contend with their own pockets and men rendered wise by the experience of the past.—l am, &c., Work and Wages.