WELLINGTON NOTES,

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1925, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES,

WATERSIDERS GIVE TROUBLE,

(Special to “Guardi",n”.)

WELLINGTON, February 20,

Recently the Arbitration Court gave the waterside workers an increase in j wages of one half-penny per hour, with which the men have expressed considerable dissatisfaction, and indications that trouble was likely to oc- , cur were noted during the week. Several meetings have been held and strongly worded resolutions of protest were carried, and matters reached the climax on Wednesday. When the call for labour to work the s.s. Rotorua was made there was no response, oriather it should be said that the watersiders declined to work unless the extra rates were paid. The men demanded sixpence per hour extra for handling frozen meat. The employers promptly took up the challenge, and refused to call for any fresh labour. This means that vessels for which labour had been called will be worked, but other vessels coming into port would be tied up until labour for the Rotorua was made available. The watersiders must first agree to work tiic Rotorua at ordinary rates before labour for other ships can be called. The attitude of the employers seems to have startled the union officials for an emergency meeting was immediately field. The watersiders will not remain out very long, for the union funds are very low, and the Alliance of Labour is unable to help. There will he very little for strike pay. and as the winter will soon he here, the men will become restive and anxious to earn. The employers are of course well informed, hence there should he no hesitation in accepting the challenge. The case for the workers voiced by the “ .Waoriland Worker” as follows: “The question the watersider in N.Z. is asked at the present time is: ‘How is it that the same shipping employers are prepared to paswaterside workers in Australia ‘2s 101 per hour while a waterside worker m N.Z. is only receiving 2s 2.1 <1 per hour. The N.Z. worker handles coal as offieientlv as his Australian conuado. Whv the great difference in the hourly

rale of pay? Rightly or wrongly the waterside worker in N.Z. is fast coming to the conclusion that his Australian comrades obtained the higher rate bv job action and his opinion is that ns the Court has failed to give him economic. justice that job action must he taken in N.Z. if the men In the waterside industry are ever to rc-dc-ive a fair wage/' lies tnerelv ''is. phasisos the nrcdiclions that "vie made when the Arbitration Act was passed, that the awards of the Corot would he respected by the workers only so long as the court gave them whit they wanted. The watersiders want to he a law unto themselves, and that cannot he tolerated. I here is a considerable quantity of frozen mutton and lamb in the cold stoics, and is to lie hoped that the trouble will tot he of long duration. WHV DANISH BUTTER SELLS A gentleman interested in the hut ter trade has handed the writer an excerpt from the “ .Manchester Guardian Commercial.” “A provision trade correspondent states that the circumstances which govern the distribution of Danish butter are peculiar. In the North of England the public insist on Danish butter as a host Imtler, and in this respect the housewife pays for her ignorance, and at the same i-mc provides the speculator with facilities for profiting at her expense.” According to the correspondent, out oi a weeklv production of 12.000 casks in Denmark, about 10.000 arc contracted for-the dairies, subject to the official quotation by large distributing organisations in Britain. About 12.000 casks go to Germany, sold subject to quotation, and partly at a fixed price .in Danish crown'-. Tim balance of 1 1.000

casks left are sold at fixed prices on

the open market. Ihe average ol these fixed prices obtained by merchants ’n Denmark from importers in Britain

determines the official quotation, vhi.'h is settled by a committee of producers and merchants every Thursday in l o-

penhagen. So that the 15,000 casss mentioned may he secured by two in-

dividual concerns, there exists between the dairies and buyers an agreement

whereby the dairies receive so many kroner 'per 100 kilos over and above the ofiicail quotation which rules at Ihe close of each week, which is : u its turn subject to a great amount of speculation. There are several exporters who between them control the bulk of the '14,003 casks available, and thov are accused of rigging the market'. The Danish system of marketing has been held up as a model for N.Z. to follow, Imt it is obvious from the above that it would he impossible for us to do so. The Danes apparently rely to a very large extent on speculators who are able to rig the market. The Dairy Control Board wants to eliminate the speculator and yet do as well as Denmark. Ihe Danes carry off their little game because they have an exclusive market in the North oi England.