Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/737

 LABOUR TROUBLES IN NEW ZEALAND 715 free; instead of which they began a quarrel with our Union Steamship Company, which almost immediately brought them face to face with the whole of the employers of New Zealand, a result which any man of reasonable ability could have foreseen. Again, on the supposition that they deliberately entered upon an aggressive war, as a matter of tactics, one would have ex- pected them to have chosen the most favourable time for them- selves, i.e., when they could have inflicted the maximum of dis- comfort on the co,munity. But what do we find ? First, the time chosen was the commencement of our summer, when a coal famine, the most formidable weapon the labour party possessed, was least to be feared; secondly, instead of keeping their aggressive intentions concealed till the time for action came, they had by their action to- ward Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs created such a scare that large stocks of all kinds had been collected even by private indivi- duals; thirdly, the time chosen was that at which trade and work of all kinds was slack; so much so, that it was to the advantage of the L'nion Company to run fewer boats; and the harvest being two months off, the country hands were able to pour down to the ports, where the wages to be earned were such a revelation to them, that one result of the strike has been a permanent transfer of labour from the country to the ports, and vice vers(. With the exception of the leaders, I will undertake to say that three-fourths of the strikers could not even now give any reason for the strike. The only one I ever heard from any of the rank and file was 'that capital was combining to crush labour,' the truth of which we will examine presently. Although the rate of wages was never made a ground of com- plaint, a rough idea of the rates may be of interest to English readers, if only to enable them to realize what loss the men risked, and in many cases suffered, through their mistaken loyalty to their leaders. The average wage paid by the Union Company to their seamen and firemen was stated by the chairman, the Hon. G. McLean, to be 7 per month, with 1 14s. average addition for overtime. This was admitted as correct by Mr. J. A. Millar, the secretary of the Maritime Council, at the labour conference held in Wellington. For work in port the wages paid to wharf labourers, lumpers, &c., are ls. 3d. per hour with 2s. per hour for overtime; a day's work consisting of eight hours. Now let us deal with the assertion that capital was combining to crush labour. It is true that the Union Company, I think in 1884, ioined the Australian Shipowners' Association; but in reference to this I will again quote Mr. Millar, the leader of