DONALD MACDONELL'S SALARY.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 10, 12 May 1911, Page 5

DONALD MACDONELL'S SALARY.

(To the Editor). Sir, —In your issue of the 20th March last a paragraph appeared .stating that Donald. Macdonell drew £6 per week from, tho shearers all the time he was drawing £8 per week as a member of Parliament. The facts are:—Mr Macdonell acted as A.W.U. Gen. Sec. without any SALARY from 1899 to 1909 (11 years) and was elected to Parliament in 1901. In 1909, Conference granted Mr Macdonell a salary a.s Gen. Sec, of £300 per annum, which he received till 31st October, 1910, and on his appointment as Chief Secretary of N.S.W. he has since acted as A.W.U. Hon. Gen. Sec. (without salary) ; so that though in Parliament for 11 years

and Gen. Sec. for 13 years he has only received salary as Gen. Sec. for 20 months. Mr Macdonell in 1894, as Bourke Bra-nch Secretary, voluntarily reduced his salary from £200 per annum to 30s per week while the shearing trouble was on. In 1896, during the shearing dispute, he decided to only accept £165, though voted £200 by the branch meeting, and really only drew £156, as secretary for that" year. Mr Macdon ell's services to the A.W.TJ. cannot be measured by the amount of salary he received, which has never been adequately proportionate to his ability and zeal in the cause of its members, for no one has done as much as lie to carry the Union through its troublous times, and imirrove the conditions of those employed in the pastoral industry. The paragraph in your paper referred to above is incorrect, and calculated to mislead and prejudice the public against the best and most im--portant officer the A.W.TJ. has ever had.—Yours, etc., THOS. WHITE, A.W.U. Vice-President;,. N.S.W.