The Co-operative Work at Cheviot

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7267, 21 July 1893, Page 2

The Co-operative Work at Cheviot

One of the men who went from Camara to the road work on the Cheviot estate writes to the Mail an account of bis arrival,and the allotting of the work. The party had a rather uncomfortable trip up to the works, owing to rain. The writer proceeds : The following morning Mr Thornton (the surveyor) and Mr Marohanb came up with orders for five of our party and 10 of the Timaru men to start work where we were, in charge of Mr Hutton. The remainder of our party with 22 Christchurch men were ordered to proceed to Port Bobinson, where the famous rockwork was to be done. I was chosen for the latter party, and at 1 p.m on the 22nd, after 3$ days’ travelling from Oamaru, we reached our ultimate destination. The usual trouble arose, after our arrival, over the arrangement of the gangs, with the usual upshot—the strong crushing the weak. I will refer to this subject, however, at some ! future time. Friday was spent in pitching our camp, and shaking down generally. This was no easy matter, as the only available camping ground was covered with thick scrub and we had to cut out patches for our tents. On Saturday we were all ready to start work, aud Mr Fraser (the inspector) set about alloting our contracts. The contracts are alloted by the ballot system, somewhat as follows :—Sections of from one to two chains are laid off by the engineer, each section is numbered, correspond* ing numbers are put in a bat and drawn by the gangers. A price is put upon each section, irrespective of the class of work to be done, and the ganger who has the good luok to dr.aw the best section makes the most wages. My ganger happened to draw a bad section, and when told by the engineer that be would get the same price as the rest of the men, he complained that it would be unfair to expect him to do work which was twice as difficult as that on adjoining sections for the same rate of pay. He suggested that it would be better to assimilate the price to the nature of the work; but, as the engineer pointed out, bad be drawn an easy section, he would not be so loud in his protestations. The road itself starts at Port Bobinson, about 20ft above sea level, aud continues on the upgrade for about two miles to the top of a cliff 800 ft above the sea level. For about half a mile from the starting point the road-line keeps along a land slip, intersected with scrub and roots of small trees. The earth is of a sandy nature, but the roots prevent the workman from getting over too much work. The price paid for this portion of the road is 6d per yard. We are told that the men who came up from Christchurch a month ago got Bd, 9d, and XOd for the same class of work. If so, there is a manifest injustice being perpetrated. Our section is the last part of the land slip, and the start into the cliff. There we have to work with 250 ft of a sandy cliff above us and 60ft of a drop to the rocky bench below. The The rate paid is the same as for the comparatively safe work, viz, 6d per yard. The nest section to ours is not let yet, as the men will require to bo roped, and the necessary ropes are not to hand. The average wage at present being earned is 6s per day.