The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Saturday, March 1, 1890. A FEW WORDS OF ADVICE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 423, 1 March 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Saturday, March 1, 1890. A FEW WORDS OF ADVICE.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st as be thy Thy God’s, and truth’s.

For some weeks past there has been a movement in Gisborne to form a Wharf Laborers’ Union. It is said to contain eighty members, though as half that number would more than cover al[ those in Gisborne who can be said to be wharf laborers people of an inquisitive turn of mind will wonder how the local Union has secured such a large membership. Of course the workmen are free and perfectly entitled to do as they choose in the matter, but it tends to prove that the regulations are so lax and the thing made so cheap of, that those who cannot be bona fide members are allowed to join, and that in the event of a struggle taking place the persons who earn their living as wharf laborers may be swamped by the votes of those who are not immediately concerned. The same thing has occurred in Napier, from which place Gisborne is at present being inspired. Now we do not wish at all to detract from the principle of Unionism, for when wisely conducted it may be attended with the most beneficent results. But unless there is that wisdom in the management of affairs Unionism may be made a curse—a means of harassing employers, and a means of sowing the seeds of dissension in places where, without such movement, these would be complete amity and satisfactl®- among all concerned’.

As the local Union has such a bearing on the public interest we fiijve interested ourselves in making enquiries as to what has already taken place. While we at once agree that the principle is excellent, and that organisation means strength, that strength can best be conserved by acting with caution, iby making fair allowance for the existing state of things, and fully considering all the circumstances, In the interest of Labor we would impress upon the men the necessity for refraining from rash action, and to refuse to be dictated to by Napier, It must be plain to anyone that Gisborne is exceptionally situated in regard to its port,and the work can in no way be compared with that done in otherports. We understand that at the most there are ■only about twenty men employed at work about the wharves and In lighterJng, and with regard to the lightering

ar the greater proportion of time is taken up, not in actual work, but in waiting for the tides. It is quite a common thing owing to the state of our river for the lighters to be kept out in the bay for the whole day or more, the real work only occupying perhaps an hour or so. It is, in such circumstences, positively ridiculous to think of trying to place Gisborne on a similar footing with other ports, and even a modified arrangement would require to be ver}’ different to make it have a fair application in Gisborne. Owing to the Union Company’s time table as a rule bringing two or three boats to Gisborne on the one day a large lightering staff has to be maintained to do work which could be done at half the expense if the steamers came in alternately. Then on the wharf there is no steam machinery, as at other ports, keeping the strongest men always at a bard strain so as to be able to cope with the work which the machinery causes to accumulate so fast. In Gisborne there is nothing of that kind, and the small trade done is in itself a reason why the place should be specially considered. In pointing out these circumstances we are aware that we are relating nothing that is at all new, but they are circumstances which ought not to be ignored, and we hope that they will be fully considered by those interested, and that the public will not be made to suffer by a struggle rashly rushed into at the dictation of Napier. A genuine grievance which Gisborne workingmen have some reason to feel keenly is the practice of bringing stevedores from Napier when there is any extra work to do at this port. It seems a scandalous thing that workmen should be imported here when there is so much labor to be obtained in the place. These are points which ought to occupy the attention of Gisborne working men, and seeing that the harbor works cannot long continue, all these matters ought to be studied before there is any rash endeavor to hasten a crisis which we are afraid will be the inevitable result if the position taken up by the Wharf Laborers’ Union is persisted in.