LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1175, 10 July 1911, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

4 FURNITURE TRADE DISPUTE. Sir—At Hie risk of again being accused of seeking "notoriety," I must inntest n"iun«t tho statement published in your issue of this morning, in connection with the above dispute. In a local, you state thnt when tho dispute was taken before the Commissioner on June 1, a deadlock arose because the union representative?, although tho Commissioner ruled iißainst them, objected to the presence of .Mr. W. Orfiilell (secretary of the Wellington Employers' Association) ns employers' agent. Allow me. on behalf of tho union's representative?, In stale that wo never at any time; objected to .Mr. Grenfell as employers' agent. The law allows him to be present ns such. What happened was this, and if tho Commissioner attempts ts take the same stand again we will att in exactly the. same manner as we did on the last occasion. Tho union did not appoint a:i agent, because it was not considered necessary to do so, preferring to meet the employers direct and settle tho dispute with" them. After all the exemptions, etc., were dealt with, (hen the claims for the new award came up to be dealt with. Tho Commissioner then called on me to state my union s reasons for asking for same. Now, let it. be clearly understood, I was not there as agent' or advocate. I was there as iin assessor. 1 then pointed out to the Commissioner that Mr. Grenfell was there, as agent for the employers, that he must have been told what to object to in our claims (every employer having been supplied at least two months before with a printed copy of same), and that therefore if he had any objections to make then was his time, and that we would sit and listen to same, and after ho retired tho council (comprised of three employers and three employees, with an independent chairman) would proceed to sat tic Iho dispute. This would not suit the Commissioner. He ruled that as one of the assessors I must state tho union's case, and give ?Jr. Grenfell Ibo right to reply and argue with us. The Arbitration Court has cleared this point by stating that all vre had to do was to, sit. tight and not do anything till the agent retired. It will be seen that wo did not object to Mr. Grenfell as employers' agent at all, because ho exception was taken to his presence until wo started on the claims, and after we gave him the right to state, as agent, all tho objections he was instructed to. One moro point as regal els the tactics of the Commissioner, and I am done. I may say my reason for mentioning this is because he has already warned me that there may not bo time for the hearing of our dispute within the period fixed by the Act (whatever ho means by that). He has set down tho hearing of our dispute for July 18. Ho has set down the hearing of another dispute for Napier for July 20, which means that, ho must leavohero on the morning of July 19, giving' us one day only to try and. settle our dispute. Furthermore, he has given the same trade, whose dispute is sit down for hearing at Napier on July .20, a further set of country dates which will block our dispute from being heard in the country for some time; and, can you believe it, sir, the ballot to refer the dispute in tho trado to which he has given dates to a Council of Conciliation , has not even closed yet. I trust that 3011 will insert this, so as to show to tho public -what a splendid (?) chance wo are getting to try and settle our differences by means of conciliation.—l am, etc., DAN MORIARTY, Secretary Wellington Furniture Union. July 8, 1911. "CARROLL'S," Sir,—A perfect stranger to Mr. Carroll, and not even sympathetically disposed towards him, after reading the Health Officer's report, I accepted the invitation as set forth, in his window to inspect the premises, and I' wish to state that I saw nothing whatever of an objectionable character. I will not attempt, or even presume, to criticise the Health Officer, as I do not doubt his sincerity for one moment, but what I do say is this, that the report has created a feeling against tho place which in my opinion is in no way justified, and has done an infinite amount of harm by influencing the minds of those of the public who \vill not or caro not to inspect for themselves. I sincerely trust, therefore, that the present antipathy (where it exists) will change to sympathy, and that instead of a marked decrease in business tho public will show their confidence in Mr. Carroll in a practical manner by helping to make the business a greater success than before. —I am, etc., ■ N.H.M.