THE QUEENSLAND SHEARERS. DISPUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1936, 2 April 1891, Page 14

THE QUEENSLAND SHEARERS. DISPUTE.

The following extract from a letter received in Dunedin by the last Australian mail gives a good idea of the state of matters in North Queensland in connection with the Shearers' Union there just before the strike, of whioh we have been hearing so much of late. The writer is a young Scotch farmer, who, after trying New Zealand, went over and settled in Queensland, and his letter is dated 24th February 1891:—

"You will doubtless have seen a lot in the newspapers about our labour troubles. The Shearers' Union seems to have become a regular 'banditti,' and I am glad to see the Government seems inol ined to treat them as such. Of course it is only the small minority that creates all the row. There are meetings, and the reasonable, respectable men dare not open their mouths. The leaders are afraid to let the men work quietly, as their well-paid occupation would then be gone. Most of the men about here are heartily sick of the tyranny of the union. It won't feed them, it won't pay them, neither will it let them work. The •billabongs ' are full of men without money or rations. I. engaged a lot in Winton to take away fat 1 wedders,' but as I will not work under their union rules the delegate seduced them. They were all men who were most anxious to work. " Vegetables are a necessity in this climate, and white men can't grow them. Yet everyone who employs a Chinese gardener is to be boycotted after Ist Maroh. I have one, and I won't sack him, so I suppose all the men will be called out. They have real good billets here, and are well off, and get a fall supply of vegetables and are well satisfied. But I don't think they will have pluck enough to act for themselves, and will be driven out by the union like sheep out of a clover field. When they were called out last year they got no strike pay* had to feed themselves, and pay up £1 to the Maritime strike. The secretary of the Labourers' Union muddled up his books, and wag about £400 short. He was asked to resign. The agent at Winton had a real good time of it, and disappeared with £200. The Shearers' Union threaten to bring up rabbits to the Barcoo, and set all the country on fire. It is most providential that it is such a wet season, otherwise no doubt the whole country would be in a blaze. The absurdity of the thing is that the whole trouble is caused by suoh a few — only a few agitators — loafers who are too lazy to work. Wages always have been higher out in Queensland than anywhere else in the world. Of course the root of the whole evil lies with the politicians, who pander to the ' working man/ and try to instil into him the idea that his rights are other people's property."