THE COOPERATIVE SYSTEM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 79

THE COOPERATIVE SYSTEM.

Bt A Co-opebative Worker

When the Government took over the Arawa Estate from tho Maoris I thought it would be a good -chance for me to acquire some practical knowledge in bush surreying; consequently, when tho late Sir John M'Kenzi© gave one of his political addresses in Hyde I interviewed him, and ho told me to come up to Wellington and he would recommend me to the Labour Department. Getting a t.ass from the late Mr Farnie on the usual conditions, I, was soon aboard tho Mararoa, by which I arrived in Wellington in due course. Within two hours of my arrival I had interviewed Mr MTKenzie. and wqs sent downstairs to the Labour Bureau for a pass to the survey works at Taihape. Although I had given full particulars on at lea&t a dozen previous occasions anent my dome6tic_ and private affairs, the same routine — irritating- and exasperating — had to be gone over again, and this, mind you, although I had a letter from the- bureau in Dunedin, and fully expected to have been- spared the impertinence of further questioning in regard to private affairs, which no sensitive man cares to divulge to a stranger. The whole of the proceedings seemed to me to savour of a census paper: " Wihat is your name? Where do you come from? How long have you been out of work? How many children have you got? What is your wife's Christian name? Where does she reside?" Now all these questions were unnecessary: they had been answered over and jover again. One, at least, of the questions was delicate and painful, and I fully ' expected to be asked how many fowls, duck^, geese, etc., I had; how often the children had smallpox, and how many holes the smallpox had left; also, whether the children resembled me or my wife or my next-door neighbour. I contend that the Labour Dcpcwtment officials should not be called upon to insist on answers to all these questions. • Of course, it may be stated in defence of the Labour Bureau inquisition that such information must bo elicited in order to tktrmLne the bona fides of the applicant ; but is the " damnable reiteration" of the interrogations necessary? If the necessity be granted for once, and if nroper entry of tho particulars be made, need it be done again and again? I cannot see it : and it is a piece of red tapeism. born of official impertinence, which ought io bo relented by ever? worker having a spark of manhood in him. The only one who reaps any benefit from the arrangement is the agent, for it saves him the trouble of looking up tb© books; but as this is part of his duty I do not see that the argument in defence counts. One of the questions I belic-vo to be somewhat helpful, and tliafc is tho on© regarding tlra number of children. The more a man has eot depending on him the more nece=sitv for expeditiousness ort flic bureau's narfc in getting him away to work, and tho more )va<on for its keeping him at work in i,roport.ion to his needs at as littl* expenditure to himself as uos&ible Now this L« an excellent idea if it were stricilv carried ouf not only in the snirit. but in tho letter. What T really mean is this: The number of children should be entered, as at nresent. and tho numbr-r under 14 years of age should bo entered. As the regulation now stands any intorprotation can be put on it. One ca-io out of dozens which have coma under niv knowWlgo will suffice. Let us suppose a reduction of hands on co-operative work s deemed necessary. The local agent of i3i<» bureau rides out armed with the nocpssarv raper. He ci»Hs all hands in the "cutting." Havirur eot them together ho proceeds ah once, in front of all fcne rest, to put the questions enumerated abo\e. regardless of the feelings of any concerned. The qucsl tion. How many chi'firfm have you pot' is put. say, to A. " Six," he replies. The same question is put to B. " Four," replies B. When nay-da y comes. B gets notice to po. while A is retained. On tbo surface this looks all right. The man who has six children is kept on, for he has the greater number. According to his own statement B has only four, and the mftn with four, according to the letter of the instructions, should give place to

' the man with six. Bixt, hold" on ! The ' agent is gone; work is resumed; 5 o'clock ' comes, and on the road home two of the men drop behind. " I say, Jack, did yoo hear -what A said when the 'bobby' came round taking the names the other day?" " Yesl" replies Jack. " Well, 'do you I know that he hae three boys working, who bring in money? and he has no wife to support either; his daughter keeps house, and he has only two going to school." Meantime B goes home to his wife and four children wondering how it is he got " the sack." Comment is superfluous. While on the question of the interrogations I may tell a humorous story. An applicant for work on being asked by a well-known Labour Bureau agent, "What is your wife's Christian name?" replied promptly, "Bridget," and added, "and now that you are seeking confidences and asking questions, might I ask in the same spirit, What is your wife's Christian name, Mr A ?" The look on the agent's face is better imagined than described.One thing I must certainly give the Department of Labour credit for is the efficient and economic method of transport. This is very much in evidence in the North Island. I had a pass from Mangaonoho (then the terminus of the Main Trunk line). I had to change at Palmerston North and at Marton. Leaving Alarton (116 miles from Wellington), we branched off on to the Hunterville section, and arrived at Mangaonoho about sundown. To my surprise arrangements had already been made by the department to convey me by coaop to Ohingaiti the same evening. Tea, bed, and jbreakfast were arranged for;- coach- to Otaihape (or. "Taihape) next day, and accommodation until I started work. The arrangements were excellent. Now, look at the bill : — Dunedin to \ Wellington, Labour Department, 18s (usually £1 ss); Wellington to Mangaonoho, 138 milee: coach to Ohingaiti ; tea. bed, breakfast ; coach to Otaihape; dinner, tea, bed, breakfast. My total indebtedness to the department was aboQt £3 Bs. Had I made the journey "on my own " it would have cost at least 30s more, to say nothing of the running about. At the time of which I am writing there were three departments employing men in the North Island — the Public Works, the Land and Survey, and the Labour Department. Of these three, the Labour Department was far and away the most far-seeing and judiciously and methodically worked. The Public Works and Lands and Survey sent anyone to the front; the Labour Department selected the men according to the class of work to be done. For instance : there were thousands, of acres of tall, heavy bush all round the recently-acquired estate. The Lands Department wanted skeleton roads (or, rather, bridle tracks) through it in order to facilitate inspection and for purposes of survey. These roads were intended eventually to serve as frontages; side lines being run at right angles to them to separate one section from another and thus facilitate fenoing on behalf of adjoining settlers. Moreover, these side lines would also facilitate the calculation of bush areas to be foiled subsequently. It was therefore one of the delegated duties of the Labour Department to make these tracks. Now, before a road or track can be made the bush must be cleared. To make wages this must be done methodically, and every advantage must be taken of slope of ground, etc., the idea being to allow as few big trees as possible to come on the proposed road or track. The more big trees that come on your proposed road, track, etc., the more labour in shifting the "barrel." The more labour expended in shifting the " barrel " off the track the less money, earned. So it requires some skill and previous knowledge on behalf of not only the " head man" chosen, but. on the part of every member of the party. Tho natural deduction is that each member of such a party must be both a navvy and a bushman in order to earn anything like fair money. Now, this view was evidently taken by the Labour Department, consequently e\ery man selected to go up at. fir=t — pioneers we were called— had to be both a good navvy and a fair axeman. He also had to be acquainted with track-clearing in bush country. The prices given per lineal chain , were not exc-pssivo ; neither were the prices ( for the track-making excessive; and yet so carefully had tho men hfpn selected by Mr Macka>, himself a practical man. that wo , made 9s a clay. !-'o much for careful eelection and judicious classification. It goes , without .«a%ing that we had a fair share of , hardship- * We had to carry in on our , backs fcente. "fl\-," cooking utensils, ramp- j ovens (bread w. scarce, and we baked our ] oun); we had to cut a track for ourselves to connect with tl.e main road; we were j often short on account-, of the wet tracks , and impassable roads; but we earned fairly „ good wages. ,

Now. mark the difference. The 6?t tracts are cleared and made passable; the frontage of eectfons are defined; the surveyors and their aiisi^tants have run in the " sidelineo" ; and the section areas so defined are all ready for the Survey Department to take ever. Beautiful bush, too; some of it running as many as 10 barrels of good matai and rimu to the acre— bu o h for which any sawmiller would give £1 an acre a year for rent. Besides helping to clear the bush, this offer would have sent thousands of feet of timber into the market; but, no: for

> some reason or other the Goiternmcnt va> ' : fused *U offers of " royalty** «pd decided to ' > bring it all clown and lease tho fond to i the settler. With this end in View, Mr ) Merchant came tip and inspected . our , "tracks," passed them, and took them over. ! The cry of, tho "unemployed" was heard , in the land, and the Surrey Department; , sent them up US Otaihape in dozens, and , scores. The duty of these men was to form gangs and fake one of the sections, [ , each gang a section, and to underscrub and ; fell the timber. Some of these* men came from the Canterbury Plains, and I do not . think that 2 per cent, had ever cone bushfelling. They formed a good camp, got , out cooking utensils and camp-ovens, storied ; in to work, and gave it up m disgust after working till pay day. All fcbe pay had to go to settle the indebtedness to storekeepers, half pay to home. A debit balance of about 15s per man was againsfc them still at the store; all were ctill indebted to the bureau for passages, oad the conditions in life wena in marked .contrast t to the conditions in the open coimtrj. They held a meeting among themselves, to which. I was invited, and I took down an account : of the meeting. It was quite evident that things had been misrepresented in Christchuroh. Next morning they were gone, leaving everything behind except their swags, with the avowed intention of tramping the 161 miles to Wellington and of .picking up on the road any odd job. Now, I knew some of this iyang well I knew them on the Cheviot estate, and knew them .to be good, earnest workmen, but— they had no experience in bush. ■ and should never have been encouraged by fcho Christchurch ■ -Bure&u to .go up to Taihtfpe. In this con-^ nection something was wrong: someone was to -blame, and I most certainly blame the Labour Department for bein* so callous a» to send these men to a job for which they had no aptitude and to work of which They had had no previous experience. Another case of great hardship was that of the printers and compositors. These men had got out of employment through the introduction of the lintoype. if I remember rightly. They interviewed the Hon. the Minister for Public Works, who advised them to try the co-operative works at Taihape, at the same time assuring them that they would*earn 7s a day. They then consulted among themselves, and a good numl.-er of them came up to the worki. They were put on the worst kind of buahfelling—namely, falling bush by the acre. Ho^Ter, they went at it. The result waa pitiable. They underscrubbed too much of their section, leaving it, in consequence, piled up like a hayfield. Naturally, all this underscrub lying down was terribly in their way, and impeded their movement* when they came to cut out thier " whitey woods" and pines. Most of the latter had to remain. Some cleared out the first ' i month after getting a "sub." on the work done, underscrubbing at 4s 3d a day. Some of the most determined remained another month. The average for those who remained to tackle the big timber was 2s 6d. Now, 1 knew these men— good, intelligent fellows for the most part, willing to tackle anj graft, honest in their endeavour to do a hard day^s work, men who could hardly He down when they came home to their camps, — and yet tho above was' their average. Tho officials of the Labour Bureau in Wellington should have warned them of their uneuitablcness for bush work, or. having sent them, should hayo demanded of tho officer in chargo that either suitable work should be found for them in a body, or. failing that, that they should be distributed singly to gangs of bushmen, one to each gang, in order that they might have been broken in to the new order of things without impairing to any great extont the earning power of the gang in which they were placed. Two other cases I must mention, one showing the grit of the colonial and the other the reckless methods of the bureau at times. The firstmentioned was a storeman in Wellington, whom a bout of sickness had laid by the heels. Rents in Wellington are hig-h ; doctors' fees are not at zero either ; wife and children must eat and weav clothes, no matter whether the breadwinner loses time through bad weather or sickness or other causes, over which he has no control. After our " case" got better he came up with the compositors. The first week after he started a message was brought for me to go on the Sunday to see him. I did &o at once. He had cut himself with the. "slasher" while underscrubbing. He was off work for s^nie time. Nothing daunted, he started in apain. By this time + k» •»■">■•- - •-■•n ~r their "whitey" woods. Two days after he restarted a message came again v;hila I was at tea. He had cut his .eg to the bone with the axe. This time h? was eff six weeks. He was cheerful and happy all ' the time — in fact, so optimistic that I christened him "Mark Tapley." On his returning to work the inspector sent him to a gang who were nearly " cut out" — that is, they wore bringing down the pines and rnaire. This often necessitates the use of a '"jigger." This, I may mention, is apiece of wood (generally of white pine) let into the troe to be felled, and placed any distance up the barrel. In this case it was 6ft from the ground. On this "jigger," or biiFh platform, the axeman stands ami l^uts m his front scarf to the distance his judgment dictates. When this is far enough in he shifts it round' to the back and cuts

away on the platform, till the tree begins j to show signs of falling. Then he either jumps down and clears, or, oftener still, if he is a. firet-claea man, he remeine on his platform, and by judicious and expert handling of the axe compels' the tree to fall right clear of the lower cart of the barrel. - To the expert bushman this " jigger " work is dangerous. How much more so to the new chum, who, I contend, should never be allowed to undertake such work? Away up in the top- branches, sometimes 100 ft above the bushman, there are dead branches caught in the live branches. These lumps of dead wood, exposed to sun and wind, are petrified as it were: they have the density of stone, and will sink in water if thrown into the river. Now, at a certain critical time -of the falling of the big pines the leaves begins to whisper, rustle, and , quiver to each blow of the axe. The front scarf being .nearly deep enough, the tree begins to incline towards the scarf, or, in other words, jrravity causes it to lean heavily towards the line of least resistance. This is the time when these lumps of dead wood are freed from -their cradle in the live branches, and if they. fall, afi sometimes happens, they snap everything in front of their descent,. We'l, wiien our "case" was sent out again, the gang he was sent to was using these- "jiggers." He mounted one and worked away to the . best of his knowledge and ability. However, ill-luck dogged him again. Shortly after dinner his tree began to whisper, and one of these pieces came away. Missing our friend by about half a foot, it broke *c "jigger" close to the tree, precipitating- our friend to the ground. It need hardly be said that his two wounds started to bleed afreet, and pretty freely too. This* however, was nothing to the shock to the system he experienced. I was down to him as soon as I was able to get away. I did what I could for him, and he left the works whenever he was able to be about again. He told me that he hod not received the slightest hint as to the dansrers to be looked for v.hile on the " iigger." Now, here again someone was to blame, and I certainly think the inspector was at fault. An inspector is supposed to be an expert at the work he is called utxm to supervise ; he ought to X now the T>ossibilities' of the man. and also of the work, and to work out his logical deduc- I tion. j

The next case "was inhuman, and it is a wonder mor© about it was ■cot heard at the time. For reasons which are well known to me an epileptic was sent up to bushfellingl The first time I saw him was after dinner. He came to the door saving he did not feel well. He was asked to come in and sit down. While we were sittine talking he took a. "fit," and I never had surih a job in my life. However, he was all right — or seemed all right. — and he told us he was uoing to make a start bushfellino 1 . as he had been sent up by So--and-so. On my road home I took the survey track, which took me past the inspector. I told him what I had seen, also what I thought about the inhumanity. He .only laughed. Well, out "epileptic went to work. He, however, became such a nuisance to the rest of the gang, and such a da-nger to himself, that they him to stop in camp and cook the "tucker." This he did, with tie following result:— One morning, -when he had been a bit slow, and been " bustled " in consequence, he got the gang' away. From what transpired afterwards, be must hare been stooping to lift the " billy," containine the hot water in order to wash-up. Be that as it may, when the men came home at dinner time they found he had evidently had a fit. and fallen in the hot ashes, burning himself to such an extent that he had to be removed to the Wanganui Hospital — 30 miles away, — for 29 miles of the distarce over one of the roughest roads in the North Island, and for tho rest of the journey by train. I need hardly say what became of him. What makes this case the wor=e is its evidence of utter indifference on behalf of all concerned.

I think I have substantiated the charge made aeainst the co-operative works by tho writer of the leading article in the Otago Daily Times. I have g-iven a few iustano*"! culled from many more in ray diaries. Tho results are very disappointing- : and, if wo judge of a system by results, the co-opera-tive System stands condemned. I propose, Sir, with your permission, to deal in a future article with the management ; and I can' prove to any logical person who will give the trouble, time, and patience to follow me that the management is more at fault than the men employed ; and that the- sooner the management is removed f^om political influence the better it will b« for a system which, if judiciously carried out. ha*i no equal in tie world. But meanwhile, Mene, mene, tekel upharsin.

Thb IifPEEiAX Bbass Sprat Pump: Witb Stream and Fine Spray Nozzle.— Made by American noted manufacturers. A.r« obtain•U« from Nnoco ass Biota, Dtmedin. Fruitgrowers and Oichardistt ikould use tbeat.