SHEARERS' DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 16 July 1910, Page 5

SHEARERS' DISPUTE.

LATEST DEVELOPMENT. JUDGE SIM'S POSITION ASSAILED AN APPEAL TO PARLIAMENT. ' (By Telegraph—Press Association.) Chrtstchurch, July 15. \ Mr. Laracy, general secretary of the SheaTers' and Wool-shed Employees' Association, has sent- the following letter to the' Minister for Labour: — - "Sir, —I enclose copy of the report of the hearing of the Canterbury shearers' dispute at the Arbitration Court yesterday, and request you to bring this matter before Parliament immediately. A copy of this letter has also been sent to Mr. T. E. Taylor. ' You will observe from this condensed report that the judge of .the Arbitration Court has taken up the utterly indefensible and unwarrantable position of .declining to hear evidence of any kind on behalf of the shearers. Yesterday he told us in effect, not once,' but several times, that unless we complied with the demands of the employers he would restore freedom of contract. The following extracts from a verbation report established this fact:— "His Honour: Unless the parties caino to an ugreement the Court will have no option except to restore free-' dom of contract having regard to the position taken up by the union, and you will have to enter into.this conference in a somewhat moro chastened spirit than you have displayed hitherto.;, Unless the union makes proper submission the Court will restore freedom of contract. Unless the. Court is satisfied that the union has abandoned its quite untenable position, freedom of contract will'bo restored. The parties must agree on the rates or the Court will restore freedom of contract, and the union must abandon its quite indefensible position." .' ■ Thus (1) we have the Arbitration Court judge, in sporting phrase, giving the employers the "tip" > that all they have to do is to sit tight on the 16s. ■ Gd.- demand aud thd sheareis will be deprived of all protection under the Industrial Conciliation and. Arbitration Act. In this connection I draw your attention to Webster's of the word. "conciliate": "To win over, to gain from a state of hostility, to gain, the goodwill or favour of, to' make friendly, to mollify, to' propitiate,.- to appease"—and I ask you to * contrast this with the attitude of .his Honour Mr. Justice Sim in ■ the ■ .Canterbury shearers' 'dispute in his attempt to coerce the shearers into agreement -with the sheep-owners'..demands. (2) We have the Arbitration Court judge giving the Court's decision before he has heard one tittle of the evidence in regard to the equity, of- our claim for 20s. per' 100. I think you will agree that for these two reasons alone we are perfectly justified in asking .Parliament to over-ride so manifest a'travesty, not only of arbitration and conciliation, but also of common justice. 1 believe Parliament is already convinced of the justness qf our rate of 205., and I shall 'not therefore marshal now the reasons we have, for making it. I have only to inform you that the demand would have been amply*supported by the evidence,, not oijlv of shearers, but also of sheepowners we proposed to call.. As tlus evidence has been shut out from publicity by the prejudged decision of Mr. Justice Sim, we desire you'to lay tho matter before Parliament with a view of protecting, not only shearers, but all workers, from such judicial threats of being deprived of their industrial rights and privileges. As a matter of tact, the Shearers' Union* is the strongest organisation of labour in New Zealand,- with tho exception of the miners, and it can very well look after itself under "freedom of contract"; but many other classes of workers may not be so happily situated. In asking Parliament, therefore, to ovcr-rido tho prejudgment of the Arbitration Court, we are not speaking only for ourselves. Later on it may be considered necessary, in oTder to protect the shearers against future judicial coercion,', to bring down a special Hill providing for tho wages and conditions of shearora all over tho Dominion, in the same way', as the Factories Act provides for various classes of workers. 'This is a mat-, ter for careful consideration in the future as it seems to us, but if you con-' aider it is a satisfactory solution of'the present difficulty, we are prepared, of course, to assist. you in passing such legislation as will ensure by statute tho rate and conditions we consider fair tor the governing of shearing operations. Trusting you will render us all possible assistance, in our attempt to .witlistand being.coerced into a "chastened submission"/ (to quote Mr. Justice Sim), which is utterly intolerable to any body of freeborn and intelligent workers. - . . ' Owing to the Hon. J. A. Millar (Minister for Labour) being confined te his home through illness, he could not ba seen last night with reference to this 'matter. The Prime Minister, to whom it was then referred, said that he was not prepared to say anything upon the point. "I make it a rule," he added, "not to discuss any such matter whilst tho House is in session." ANOTHER REFERENCE TO THU COURT. The local subdivision of tho. shearers' dispute, which was before a. Conciliation Council at Masterton on May 17, has been referred to the Court of Arbitration. It was on the initiative of William Barton and. other sheep farmers that the, matter went before the Conciliation Council, and a partial settlement was then arrived at. The workers did not accede to the employers' demand that work should start, half an hour earlier-in the morning, aiid the parties did not agree as to the number of hours of work, the rate of pay, •md- periods of payment. All these points are consequently referred to the Codrt for settlement. The date and place of the hearing have not been tixed.