Untitled

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3827, 4 August 1928, Page 3

(To the Editor). Sii’, —I noticed in Thursday’s Herald what a woman, whose husband is a flaxworker, had to say about unemployment, and that her husband would be glad to take work at 10/- a day. I can tell you, sir, that there are a number of cases in Foxton just as bad, and if it were not for the shop-keepers giving us a bit of credit on the chance that the mills will be running soon, I don’t know how we would get on. 'lt’s all very well for the “top hats” in the union to say stand by the award, but any d fool knows that the bottom is out of the market and the bosses in offering us work are gambling that there will be a demand for the hemp at an early date. The risk is'all on their side, and I suppose some of them will have to be financed. Some of us have picked .up a bit of odd work, but I kMv that no one has been able to earn anything like as much as we could have got by taking a ten per cent, reduction, and we have to compete with men who are not flaxworkers. I am in favour of a living wage and the millers are offering us a fair thing and will play the game when the market looks up. It’s all very well to talk about what happens at the union meetings. But if any one got up and talked what he thought at the meetings and did not agree with the guns, he mould get a bad time. Let the executive take a secret ballot on whether we would accept the millers offer'and they would get the shock of their sweet lives. We’ve got to meet things, as they are today and some of us are getting fed up by what is happening. We can’t expect the business people to carry us much longer. — Yours etc., WORKER.

Sir, —I read the report of the annual meeting of the Racing Club and was surprised to learn that the date of the annual meeting had been changed by the stewards to cut out Anniversary Day which has been our race day for so many years. I agree with Mr. Woods that before making the change the stewards should have taken a vote of the members. The reason given that our meeting clashed with the Wellington meeting is not very convincing. Wellington does not attract the district people on the holiday like Foxton, which was looked upon as a picnic, and many will not now attend on an off-day. It remains to be seen whether the Club will attract bigger acceptances or better jockeys. ' The Club can only judge by results, and I hope the step they have taken will not throw the Club back. From what the president said it appears that if a mistake is made the Club can’t get back Anniversary Day. Well, sir, it’fs a case of wait and see, and I hope I am wrong in the belief that a mistake has been made Yours etc., OLD SPORT.

Shy —In your leading article of July 31st you state “That it is beyond dispute that the millers cannot in the present circumstances meet the Award rates.” ' This statement we contend is not correct, and to back up our contention, we asked the ' flaxmillers when in conference, to give us the same privilege, as they offered in their circular letter to members of Parliament, when applying for a subsidy on hemp produced, to appoint a responsible officer to verify their statement, “that they cannot meet the award rates. Every flaxmiller present individually refused our request. The Union then offered to work under a sliding scale of wages, whereby the workers would concede a reduction in wages of sixpence per day for each £2 per ton fall in prices, below the price obtaining above the award rates, when the prices rose £2 above the price when the award was made. Under this scale wages would have been immediately reduced. This offer was rejected by the flaxmillers.

Your statement that a 10 per cent, reduction would provide work at an increase in wages above what obtains for unskilled labour, is not correct. The award rate for unskilled labour is 1/10 per hour. Two meetings of members of the Union wei;e held, Shannon and Foxton, to consider the flaxmillers offer of a 10 per cent, reduction in wages, and in both cases, it was unanimously decided to reject their offer. Surely Mr. Editor, if the workers concede a reduction in wages when prices are low, it is only right that the flaxmilljers should concede an increase when prices arc high. The figures in the Miranui Limited Prospectus clearly show that they can work at a profit, after allowing for a royalty of 20/- per ton on green leaf, and only 50 per cent, of the hemp produced being graded High Fair. In conclusion, I fe)el confident that this move on the part of the flaxmillers is to take advantage of the vast amount of unemployment to reduce wages. Mr. H. A. Seifert when giving evidence 'before tihe Labour Bills’ Committee, last November, when asking that the flaxmilling industry be exempt from the Arbitration Act, stated, in reply to a question, that exemption was for .the purpose of reducing wages. — Yours etc., PERCY T. ROBINSON, Sec. Flaxmills Union.

We understand that the slidingscale offer made by the Union, if accepted, would have brought the

wages down to the reduction desired by the millers, viz., 13/6 per day for day labourers. Hence it appears.that the Union did consider that present prices warrant the millers asking for a 10 percent. reduction; or if not where was the consistency in the Union being prepared to grant that reduction, even if under the slidingscale system? The sliding-scale system, however, was rejected by the millers on grounds perfectly sound to them, and as a counter offer they proposed that if the Union would accept a 10 per cent, reduction, that immediately the price of hemp rose to the figure obtaining when the award was made, wages would automatically come back to award rate.- This seems a fair and workable proposition. ‘ Regarding Miranui prospectus, it is not for us to say whether figures contained therein are sound or otherwise, or applicable to the present-day altered conditions or not; but what can be said with confidence is that those figures do not in anyway apply to millers working in or adjacent to Fxoton. Therefore Miranui figures are no argument whatever in so far as this particular district is concerned. Unskilled labour at the price mentioned by Mr Robinson probably does apply under some awards, but is not universal. The imputation that the millers are taking advantage of the vast amount of unemployment to reduce wages is not in accordance with fact. — Ed.H.]