THE CO-OPERATIVE CONTRACT SYSTEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14918, 22 August 1910, Page 6

THE CO-OPERATIVE CONTRACT SYSTEM.

■ Sir,—Will you kindly allow me space in, your paper. tp bring before you and the public' a. grievance in connection with the so-calkd co-opjrativ® contract system, nnd to show the way the men are paid .for their work? Some of last month's paysheets show the magnificent sums of Zs Od, 2s lid, and 4s a day mid to the 111011, some of whom are experienced, hard-work-ing men; and as there lias boon a. lot of bad weather I his year there lias been in consequence a lot of lost time on the part of tho workers. How are theve men (especially the. enes with families) to pav their store accounts? Moreover, tho woi-kem have to pay heavily for all tools and explcsives used. As for the bush work, the engineer _ puts a price on it, and it is not his concern whether the workers make a. living or not; they get 85s a chain for work that is well'worth £6 a chain, its it costs £4 15s for explosives, to say nothing of boring for Wasting and .cutting and building and burning. Then all the limbs of the trees have, to be cut and cleared up, so a man has no chance to make an honest, living. Then the storekeepers are told that thev will lwve to supply the people on the line with stows or else clo-e up, hut who, 1 would ask, is going to pay the stoi'ekeej>?re, as they do not get tlioir goods 'and. labour for nothing? ftow. Sir, if the Minister of Public Works would rome and interview the workers instead of only the officials, he would learn something of the way t.h© workers on the Catling railway are' being treated, as tho preijnt system is only a means of converting honest men into rogues, and the sooner tlie,, co-operative system is done away with the tetter fov nil concerned.—l am - e ' c -> Underpaid WORKER.