WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1920, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(Our Special Correspondent)

MILITANT RAILWAYMEN.

DEMAND EARLY DECISION

WELLINGTON, March 17

The executive of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants no longer mince matters in declaring its intention to obtain better pay and better conditions for the men it represents. It lias finally and emphatically rejected Mr Justice Stringer’s recommendations and has declared its intention to resort to militant methods if these recommendations are the Government s last word on the subject. It points to the fact that unskilled workers with practically no responsibility who bar c threatened to strike, are receiving high-

er wages, and enjoying better conditions than are the railwaymen who are engaged in a highly skilled occupation and bearing enormous responsibilities. “No wonder,” a. member of the executive said to-day, commenting upon this fact, “our men have come to believe militancy pays.” That the executive is averse to any precipitate action may be judged from its determination to delay further action till Mr Massey is able to consider the ultimatum it has in readiness for him. PRIME MINISTER IN HOSPITAL. It is extremely unfortunate that Mr Massey at this particular juncture should be kept from his office by an operation his medical advisers insisted upon. The operation itself is not a very serious matter and no complications are feared but the Prime Minister lias been recklessly overworking himself since his return from the Peace Conference, and his recovery may be slower than it would have been had he been takiiicr things easier during the last five or six months. One cheering incident in connection with Ins hospital expel 1ence is the determination of the executive of the Society of Railway Servants just mentioned, which shows a nice appreciation of the fitness of things on the part of one section of his critics which has afforded him much satisfaction. With a Cabinet in the course of reconstruction his position is ! a peculiarly difficult one and the kmd- ; thoiK-ht of the executive augurs well ! for the outcome of their further nego-

L. J Ct 1/J.VS ■ hides and boo is. The Minister of Agriculture is not lieklv to get much the hotter of tie | argument with Mr G. J. Ward over the relative cost of hides and hoots Mr Ward is a large boot manufacturer | with an intimate technical and practieal knowledge of his business, and the Minister is engaged in an unusual eon- j test But Mr Nosworthy, in the \iew of the layman at any rate, seems to have scored one point against the ex- | pert. “It is not clear,” he says, i . the course of a statement, pu 1S ® this morning, “why an advance in the | price of leather necessitates .ncreased , cost being shown in respect of every other item, including the manufact - | or’s and the retailer’s profits. Bu though the reason for the advance is not clear, the fact of its existence is frankly admitted b y both manufacturer and the retailer to charge an advance of 33 1-3 per cent upon the manufac timer’s prices and therefore, the liighei ! rice the larster his preiih-stander. dised hoots or any ether lxiots. THE. benzine famine. The Waikato dairy farmers mve been calling out loudly m oc. paper against what they deem to he an unfair distribution of benzine unde ■ system of control instituted by tlm

Board of Trade. They allege tnax k controller apointcd by the 80. ' stationed at Hamilton lnid been moved and that the distribution of im> tor spirit had been entrusted to the representatives of the oil companies who have been more attentxve to the requirements of “joy-rideis ■ those of the small farmers. But the 0,.... Bo, ri o. 2”^;;; ! seen this morning, strongly . esent<m the suggestion that the needs of the farmers were being neglected. An ordered to the district three o, fo n davs ago and must have arrived before this, and the controller was returning to Hamilton forthwith to make had proved acceptable to the f. was being continued.