LABOUR TROUBLES IN CANADA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22514, 23 September 1938, Page 20

LABOUR TROUBLES IN CANADA

Recurrence May Be Expected WAITAKI BOYS* HIGH SCHOOL’S TOUR [THE PRESS Special Service.] OAMARU. September 22. The possible recurrence of labour troubles in Canada during the coming winter was forecast by Mr P. W. Hargreaves, of the staff of the Waitaki Boys’ High School, who has returned from a tour of Canada with the party of boys from the school. Mr Hargreaves in an interview with “The Press” at Oamaru said that the unemployment problem had not been definitely tackled and that there were numbers of men in casual employment. “From what I could see they are going to have very troublous times this winter,” he said. He recalled the sitdown strike of the unemployed in the Post Office at Vancouver and the trouble with the wharf labourers last year. Many of these men, he said, had been sent into the country to look for work and some of them were still banded together roaming from place to place. When there was no seasonal work in the country these men would return to the towns and a recurrence of the labour troubles might be expected. _ , During their stay in Canada the party visited several industrial centres and were given an opportunity to inspect many of the different industries. These all seemed to be .busy and fairly prosperous, said Mr Hargreaves, especially the milling industry, which at the time of their visit was at its height. These visits were an enjoyable and instructive feature of the tour, he said. Describing their trip, Mr Hargreaves said that the party was specially impressed with visits to two huge lumbering mills at New Westminster and Chemainus. on Vancouver Island. Here they saw huge logs 20 to 30 feet long being thrown about and handled like matchsticks to be cut into planks. All the handling was done by machinery on an endless chain, and the work of these “mechanical niggers”—they were just like human hands, he said—was almost' uncanny.' At Trail they had visited what was known as the greatest non-ferrous smelting plant in the world and which daily produced 560 tons of lead, 450 tons of zinc, and 150 ounces of gold, in addition to silver* bismuth, and cadmium. This plant was controUed by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, and as a subsidiary industry contained a huge fertilising plant. The factory could be converted into a high explosive plant within 24 An inspection was also, made of the Turner Valley oilfields. ■ in which the oil was produced from wet gas. This was obtained from a depth of about a mile and was put through special processes. The gas was conveyed to Calgary. 30 miles away, by pipe line, where it was stored in gasometers and used for household heating purposes.