Co-operative Works.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12177, 29 January 1903, Page 3

Co-operative Works.

_ — i—..,.i — ..,. » THE TALE OF ONE WHO TEIED THEM. (By rUnicyclist, in. the New Zealand Herald). I had been under the impression for a Tong time tha\ the men employed on the Government co-operative, works— commonly called "The Co-ol>. for short— were in the enjoyment of a very 5 good thing. I bad . heard, • unw after time, of the big wages maae hy , various parties for very little, work,, a:-.cl oi.e man in particular inturnwd me .that he had worked for two years on "The Co-op." and had never made less than 16/ a day. At the tune he told me this I . knew that he was working for half that amount, x *nd naturally express^ surmise «th» leaving sucb- lucrative .employment, but hi; said tKaV in consequence of his, always making 'such excessi^y high wages the Government officials had -taken a derry" on him md. would cive him .no more work.A naAe snce dfcovered ihat he was • man to whom truth was- stranger than fi NW as I had never earned any Government money, and h^.,"*^? voted for tfca Liberal <^ dat< \< * thought it only right that I, too, shoufd have -a share of th* good things going, so I joined some men who weJe all edually^ desirous of a* quiring a rapid fortune, and^we star^put 'to take a conteac tagd- deplete the Government chest. When a certain number %i men. take a co-np. contract one of the party is aPP?M™: ea eanger, or, as he is officially styled, in derision, "the contractor. This individual holds a unique position among the great ones of the earth. He is invested with, all respoiisibility, and not a vestige.of auti^ority He receives nothing additional for' fulfilling the dutbs of his proud, position, excepting abu*e and contumely. If things uo vf 011 ''^! whole blame falls "p-m bjm and if they go right every man in the party claLi the credit of it, and oach^H teU you confidentially that -f it were liot for his exertions in keeping $nat chnckle-Keaded galoot of a jfooger in the way he should gq not one oi the crowd would have -,a feather to fly with at the end of the 30b.. me party I belonged to. were moderate in this* re«»ect. We never jumped upon our "contractor" pftener tha* once a week oh an, average, and then merely "Jest he forgot" .that we wfti« free and independent working, me^ij who "wouldn't stand no bloomm nonsensa from nobody." Of bourse we snubbed him , promoiTy whi-m-ycr he presumed to offer an opimoJi as to how the work should be -done, iust to keep him in his place, and also-very .much also-because we. knew he had no power to invest . «s with the Order of the Sack, but that we had the power to dismiss him at any time. In fact, to . hear, us talk, one would fancy that we , had the power to dismiss every official in the lountry connected with the .-cads and raifeays from the Minister downwards. This is one of the beauties of ,"The Co-op."— an army of officers and no -.privates. Judging, , tow f^ from a pretty exte»«nWs at.r, xrmed knowledge of the genus home » I am prepared to assert that mnetynine out of e<'ery Yxnndv^l require a boss and, what is more, they require a genuine article, not a spurious iiritatidn like the co^op. gan?er. But to return to our muttons, we took a contract; we signed iiixtanperable* documents ; we bound .ourselves over hand and foot to perform all manner of things, and we _ appointed our scapegoat, "the contractor. Every member of the party was accustomed to hard work, and ' ni\ worked well and constantly— a good honest eight hours a> day, no more an^ no less— but when the contract was completed I for one discovered that if I had stuck to my previous occupation I should tave been -richer by at least 10/ a week. This is how we depleted, the. Government chest. I made no complaint. Our contract was,- 1 believe, a. fairly average one, and' tne official whose, duty it was to inspect cur work and see that it was properly carried out, performed that duty carefully, but never exceeded it. At tke same time I miist say thatthe contracts are altogether too small Twenty, pounds for each member of a party is the limit, and after ten men have, purchased provisions, tents, tools, and cooking utensils, and have had to pay for the packing of them a distance of, perhaps 30 or 40 miles, there is very ' little left" to divide at the completion of a contract, and before another can Jbe taken that little has vanished. Again, if & man happens to meet with an accident whilst in the employment of a'pwvate individual or company, the Government, posing as ,* champions of the Working man (with a big W), insets upon his receiving compensation. But lam credibly informed that if he meets with an accident whilst in their own, employnient he gets nothivgj even though he were working on wages at the time. Putting it very mildly, this seems rather anomalous. Of course these and other things do not tend to induce good workmen to remain on the works longer than they can help. Taking the whole thing "full and by/ as the sailors $ay, it can hardly , be considered a gaudy success. _ It is a pity, too, because the principle, if properly carried out, is really an excellent one. Work can, be done just as well and cheaply by it a» any Other system, with the additional «recomtnendation that the man who toils has the chance of benefiting to the full extent of his labour, instead of having d considerable portion of his earnings going into the pocket of some greedy contractor. No doubt at present it has many administrative defects which would take too long to enter into just now, but, as a work-

ing man, I regret being- forced to admit thai its failure is mainly attributable to the workingmen, themselves. I have long' since arrived at the conclusion that the working .man is a fool, "or lie would never" remain a working man, bui, Irom what I ; have seen of the professional co.-op. labdrer, "he is narrow-minded and woodenheaded beyond the sons of men. Place ,a*' slave-driving navvy boss .over" him, grinds hum down and abuses. him" and he works patiently ajid contentedly, biit give him an,, interest in f his work,.~'arid a, voice. .yx the carrying of i* through, and the v , -result -is confu-, sion -. worse confounded. He has evidently been aocusiomed to having the navvy boss standing over him shouting orders and imprecations 4 at him that he has ceased' to think for himself. 5 ' „' \ Possibly he ' knows that there Js such a thing as loyalty to one's mates,, but if ' he does it is merely' from • hearsay. Ho is always ready to cut his own throat or the throats of his fellow-\frorkers' for some paltry present gain, and if you take the trouble to point out to him what -a fool and a fraud he is he resents it, and considers you either a "bloomin' ijit" or an emissary of his pet^bogey, the capitalist. Experto crede. As a typical instance of his wron^-headed-ness I may mention that although he howls for a working day of eight hours yet when he gets one of these two-penny-ha'-p'enny contracts the usual thing is to f slave for 10, and very , -often twelve, hours a day, in all sorts of weather,,. and then go around- and boast of tne big wages earned ; but never a word of the, long hours worked. As a natural consequence, when next a similar contract, is let/ the price- is SO regulated that) those taking it find themselves compelled to work the same long hours' in order to make a living , wage,- and Vnen the parrot-cry arises of the poor downtrodden workingman, and the tyrannical Government official. Some day, perhaps, we working men may listen to the ; voice of reason and cQinmon sense, but I- fear that the man who wishes to jjot pither into our heads- will have to use a to.*nshawk. So moie it be. ' . ,