Forced Labour For Miscreant Executive

On its way into the Tauherenikau, the Tramning Club's Easter working party encountered two elderly gentlemen, who watched with sympathetic approval the file of perspiring workers staggering up the Puffer with their loads of timber. "Most people these days," said one gentleman, "do as little work as they can for as much money as they can get. But you people are doing as much as you can for nothing at all." "What you ought to do," said the other gentleman, warming to the subject, "is to make your executive carry your timber as a penalty. That would fix them, eh?"

When he was politely informed that two members of the said executive were already doing so, he seemed surprised that there were no warders with barbed wire whips posted at fifty yard intervals along the track.