Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 148

Transcript

road making, making footpaths, gardens, parks, and endless other and variable labours, which all combined, and which many a poor fellow has not lived to enjoy, form the beautiful city of Christchurch, which the young people of to day have almost brought themselves to believe they made for themselves, and are in no way indebted to those who have gone before. Certainly, it cannot be disputed at times there was a struggle for work – for men – never, not as now, never for boys. Boys then were valued, and there was no necessity to go begging to place a boy. They were wanted and sought for. Has it ever occurred to the bitter strugglers of to day that the evils that exist largely rose from sweating – not the much talked about tailors and printers sweating – but sweating, for it is nothing else, in the form of competitive tenders for buildings, for works for everything? Result, tenders too low, progress payments, evacuation of the premises, merchants and tradesmen unpaid, workmen lamenting, and greater curse, sub-contracting. Perhaps thought out, competitive tendering and contracting in every line has had as much to do with the evils that now irremediably exist, as extravagance. Could the trades union strugglers get that abolished? The men that drive competitive tendering off the face of New Zealand’s earth will merit remembrance. The old rotten so called free trade cry of Bright and Cobden, “Buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market” has proved, is proving a curse.