NEW ZEALAND SHEARERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10179, 13 October 1894, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND SHEARERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Several of your correspondents inreferring to the correspondence between the Benmore manager snd the Defence department have spoken ot the shearers of New Zealand ia any but correct or complimentary terms. " Lawless spirits," " ruffians," aud so forth they have been designated in a manner extremely reckless if not ridiculous. Can any of your correspondents mention even one outrage perpetrated by shearers in New Zealand in the past*.

Last season when the workers were deprived of their earnings by the manager of Benmore, did they act in anything like a dastardly manner? Surely you would think that, if villainous instincts are so rife in tht natures of our shearers, during the heat of that dispute they would have felt sufficiently bitter to have shown all manner of badness ; yet the facts of the matter disclose that the Kurow people aud its constable state thafc a mere orderly crowd of workers it would be impassible to find. Still, in the face of such evidence Mr Middle* ton and others have made references of a distinctly libellous character. The shearers af New Zealand are aa law-abiding a crowd of men as it is possible to find. Moreover, knowing as they do that all disputes may be satisfactorily settled through the Conciliation md Compulsory Arbitration Act, they are; not likely to forfeit public sympathy through the perpetration of any outrage.—l am, &c, October 11. • Maorilandeb.

— The first English clock was set up at Westminster iv 1283; the first Italiauweight clock was put in place in Bologna in 13, c 6 ; the first French clock was placed over the PU-is de Justice.in 1370. ROYAL COLORS TOBA6CO