The Star. FRIDAY, FEB. 17, 1898. The Carpenters and Builders.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4572, 17 February 1893, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, FEB. 17, 1898. The Carpenters and Builders.

It is always well- to take time before I coming to a conclusion aa to any account one hears of a matter on which there is a possibility of bias or prejudice colouring a statement. This holds good especially in political and class disputes. Quite unin- ! tentionally people frequently allow their sympathies or interests to sway their judgments, and in consequence make assertions as to facts which the facts themselves do not by any means warrant. Hence we find the most contradictory accounts given in history of events the most notorious, and the student finds it impossible to reconcile the versions he reads. It has been said that the history of the past has in many instances been written by men who have been in a conspiracy for the purpose of misleading. Even in these days the misrepresentations which mark periods of public. excitement are scandalous, and it ia never safe to take as true what appears in the newspaper organs of one party, unleßS their version remains uncontradicted by the representatives of the other party. During the labour troubles which occurred recently at Broken Hill, and elsewhere in Australia, the employers, on the one hand, were accused of oppression and inhumanity, and the employees, on the other hand, were accused of bad faith and acts of violence. The charges were emphatically denied on both sides, and public opinion had no adequate means for determining where the troth lay. Some of the employees were prosecuted and found guilty, but even this did not convince their sympathisers who had read and believed certain accounts of the system by which the prisoners were captured and prosecuted. Indeed, the fact that employees were punished, while employers could not be prosecuted for acts held to be equally aggressive and blameworthy, gave rise to the complaint, that there was one law for the rich and another for the poor. And who can wonder at this complaint being made when he knows that $he apologists of the employers have declared that if the rebellious workers cannot be kept under by the operation of the ordinary law, then it will have to be done by the more ruthless meanß of military force ? Such threats as these may apparently pass unheeded by those against whom they are uttered, bnt in reality rankle in the mind, and are remembered when the remembrance embitters the bad feeling caused by some new act of oppression or injustice which otherwise would be thought little of. The Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners has published a letter, the contents of which will illustrate the remarks we made in the beginning of this article. A few days ago the builders of Christchurch held a meeting, a report of which appeared in the papers. This report was to the effect that the associated carpenters and joiners had broken the terms of one of the rules agreed upon' by. the Carpenters' and the Builders' Associations. The rnle referred to required three months' notice to be given on either side in the event of a proposal being made to rescind, alter or amend any rule. The carpenters, on Feb. 7, passed a resolution that they would cease work on Feb. 11 unless the minimum rate of their wages was raised to 9s a day. The builders hereupon held that there had not been due notice given. The Secretary's letter, however, puts matters in an entirely different light. He Bays that almost a twelvemonth ago the three months' notice was given and that the masters subsequently, while admitting that carpenters were the worst paid men in the building trade, said that with an improvement in trade they would be glad to give better wages. At the same time they said they would hold as good the notice already given. Happily a majority of the masters have agreed to give the ! advance aaked, and probably there will be no further trouble; bnt the incident shows how easily a false impression may be made on the public mind, and how unsafe it is to jump hastily at a conclusion on matters in dispute between employers and employees. '