REVOLT OF SLAUGHTERMEN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1913, Page 6

REVOLT OF SLAUGHTERMEN

"I think we can say the season is now at an end," says Mr. Reardon, the secretary of the Slaughtermen's Federation. The men had hoped that the agreement of the Waingawa Company to pay 30a would cause a kind of stampede among the other firms, but the expected has. not happened. The companies, generally, are not willing to go beyond their offer of 27s 6d, and therefore one of the important primary industries is threatened with a set-back. It is a matter of opinion whether the work is worth 30s a hundred, and we do not pretend to have all the data necessary to enable us to form a fair judgment on that score, but it is well to remind the public that 30s means a 60 per cent, increase on the rates paid in 1906, N and the offer of 27s 6d is an improvement by 37£ per cent, in seven years. Thus there is a little more in the matter than a trifle of one-third of a penny per sheep. The half-a-crown a hundred between the parties involves a large disbursement in the aggregate, with the prospect, of demands for further rises. The employers' reluctance to yield may seem unreasonable to the men, but it cannot surprise the public when the pay of 1906 is considered. Moreover, such increases (up to 50 per cent.) for one class of workers must open up the question of large increments all round, not only in the occupations allied to the actual killing, but in spheres outside the abattoirs. We are not concerned at the moment with the merits of such an incidental movement. We merely wish to point to an economic truth to show that the dispute abou^' the difference between 27s 6d and '30s per hundred sheep is not soUjmall as some commentators have asser&d, and it does not affect the meat trade alone. On the side of the proposed limitation of apprentices to one in twenty (only one set per season) the employers are clearly right to resist the scheme for a close corporation, which would reduce the employers' function to one of compliance with demands, from time to time. The struggle means reversion to the old order, might against 'might. The slaughtermen feel strong enough to fight for 30s ; the employers feel strong enough to resist-^ahd thus the whole country has to suffer till one party cries "enough." New Zealand has ceased to be, the guide, philosopher, and friend to countries which look for liglit in the darkness industrial.