A shaggy and helpless farmer, tied down by the legislation which created the compulsory arbitration system, gets clipped by a cheerful shearer in this anti-union cartoon from 1908. In this period shearers’ unions used the Arbitration Court effectively to improve shed conditions and rates of pay, and their employers were beginning to react against the court. The caption reads: ‘THE SHEARERS’ DEMANDS. The Shearer: Aha! I’ve got him under the shears at last. This will be the best season’s wool clip I’ve ever had.’
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past
Reference:
Observer, 18 January 1908, p. 1
Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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