REGISTRY OFFICE FEES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 23, 22 October 1907, Page 6

REGISTRY OFFICE FEES.

PROTEST FROM THE PROPRIETORS. | The local registry office proprietors aro up. in arms about tho now scalo of fees that woro made the subject of. a recent Ordcr-in-Council. At a meeting held last evening, presided over by Mrs. Dalrymplo, it was stated that they understood tho now the result unsubstantiated complaints made to tho Labour Department by persons who for ono reason or other found they wero not suited in tho places sent to by registry offices, or by employers who were not satisfied with the people sent to them. Tho, rogistry offico keopors protest that they cannot be hold blameablo ifi a man comes in for a billot representing himself as, for instance, a kitchen-hand, and it is discovered subsequently that ho is< ontirely ignorant' of kitchen work. Tho man is probably dismissed, and ho _ complains to the Department that, in being so dismissed; ho has not been treated fairly by tho registry office. "The troublo is," said Mrs;' Dalrymplo, " that peoplo often deceive us deliberately by representing that they/can do certain work which really they know nothing about —particularly is this so in regard to men. Somo represent. thonisclvcs to bo good milk: ors, when they don't know one end of a cow from tho other." A specific grievance tho meeting had was in regard to tho. reduction of tho fee for single engagements ■ in the country. AYhore it was formerly 2s. od., it has been reduced -to Is/ This was quito .'ridiculous, for' it was too bad' to have to go down to tho railway station, buy the ticket, (in cases where the faro has boon forwarded) write a letter, or send a wire for Is. " Wo would ho quite content, I think," said, another speaker, "if the present scale wero continued, if tho fee for thoso. getting over £1 per week was increased. At present a, girl getting 15s. paid the same as, say, a chef getting a £4 a week billet."- " Many join tho unions in the hope of getting a billet off tho list," said another, "and they readily pay the union feo with very little result. There was a case on unlay, where a man camo off a boat and joined the Bakers and the Cooks and Waiters' Union, paying ss. in each case without gotting-a billet. Then he camo to us and wo got him one, though he by that time had spent all the "money ho had." It was stated- that it was-very seldom that an employer complained about the fees. They were always too glad'to get someone. Tho meeting decided that the" now scale of fees, which are to comb into operation on' November-1, are unworkable, and that a deputation wait on the Minister for Labour asking him to:, arrange the fees on a-more equitable sliding scale than has been dono.