DISMISSAL OF SHEARERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8343, 1 February 1913, Page 4

DISMISSAL OF SHEARERS

We have received from Invercargill u letter in reference to statements made in our issue of the 9th instant, in an interview with Mr M. Laracy, secretary of the Shearers 1 federation, in reference to trouble at Messrs H. Mackenzie and Sons’ station, Lake Wakatipu, and the dismissal of shearers. The writer of this letter says that the statements are incorrect, and that Messrs Mackenzie and Sons are satisfied that they have been made with the intention of injuring them. •• In the first place,” says the writer, “ the statement that the men were dismissed for refusing to shear wet sheep is quite untrue, as Messrs Mackenzie and Sons can prove in the event of tho threatened proceedings being taken against them for a breach of the award. It is also untrue that Mount Nicholas is one of the hardest stations in New Zealand to reach, because from Queenstown you have got to go across tho lako by oil launch to the station. Tho position is that thero is a Government wharf at which tho Government steamer calls, and the shearing-shed is within twenty or thirty yards of tho wharf. Tho only way Messrs MacKengirt and Sons can account for such a statement is by premising a malicious motive, this motive being to deter shearers from accepting engagements to shear on tho station referred to. Tho statement again as to tho combs in use on tho station being slower than No. 1 oomb is quite incorrect. Tho motive for making this statement is also apparent.”