THE BOILER-MAKING INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 12

THE BOILER-MAKING INDUSTRY .

DEPUTATION TO THE MINISTER OF LABOUR. THE COMPILING OF A TARIFF. A deputation of three from -the Boilermakers' Union of Otago waited . upon the Hon J A. Millar, Minister of Labour, at the Grand Hotel on Friday. The deputation, the members comprising which were Messrs Thds. Burns (vice-president), F. V.* Fail (secretary), and A. Dowden (a member of the union), was introduced by Mr J. F. Arnold, 3£P. The Hon. J T. Paul, M.i*C, was also present. Mr Arnold said the deputation, recognising Mr Millar's- great interest in and sympathy with local industries, desired to bring under his notice, as .Minister or Labour, the position that existed in regard to the large amount of manufactured work in the boiler-inakißg line, ,, which could be made in the Dominion that was being imported, into New Zealand at the present time. The Minister was well acquainted with the elackness af trade that prevailed, in the iron trade in particular, and they therefore considered -chit H anything could be done in the direction of protecting the industry and creating more work, it would be a good thing not only for the men here, but for the Dominion as a whole. 'There ' were two Or three cases which the members of the deuptation would cite to him in which certain things which oould have . been manufactured locally had been sent for out of New Zealand. They would specially mention the large gas-holder recently imported into Dunedin free of duty, heuodciietood.— (The Hod. Mr Millar: A 20 per cent. duty). The whole of that structure, said Mr Arnold, the deputation considered should have been made locally. Another matter they complained ol was that unskilled labour in the Government workshops was being, used in the boiler-making trade. Not only was unskilled labour being used, but also boy labour where there should be adult labour. / Mr Fail said they had from 40 to 50 names on the union roll, apd at times there were more. Within the last two or three years tbe trade Lad been very slack here. A large number of their members had found it far r . more remunerative to take on labouring work. At the present time some were employed as firemen and trimmers on the boats. What he desired to say .was that if the Minister could see his way to do anything to remedy the ' existing state of affairs whereby large works were being imported into the coun- : try instead of being made here," he would , be- greatly assisting them. There was the ' new fas-holder at Duaedin, which was imported from the Old Country. Not only ; wu the holder imported, but men were ] brought out to put it together.' When I some of the members of their union tried j to get work on the holder, they were ' asked to take on piece work. They could not' do that according to their award. Then again, if there was a wet day and work was suspended before 5 o'clock, those employed on the bolder were asked to work off the balance after hours on the following day on bare time. Members of _ the union were also prevented from ' doing that. Another recent importation i was a large rotary kiln for a local cement company. Then there was the question, why were not the smaller class of steamers toujJt here? Some years ago the Inver- ] cargiUyand; the Motintaineer • had- been j built here,' and,' why could not the" fame kind of work, be done here now, instead j of sending outside -the country far what they wanted? Then there was the building of harbour dredges. The Otago foundry bad built- a dredge that had -given evexy' satisfaction to. the Nelson Harbour Board, yet" at the present time no less ithan three dredges were' being imported into the. Dominion. With regard to the Hillside. Workshops, as far, as they could make out, " handy-" men .were being- paid •wages which were ' veiow what a private employer would have to pay under the 'Arbitration Court award. IJhey- were not able to take an inspector to the . Government workshops to.- look into such cases. One remedy they proposed was that in pregard to importations into New Zealand a prohibitive duty should be introduced. fcThey had asked the *mployers to join Jthem m this deputation, but they (the employers) "had considered that it would J>e Detter for them to approach the Minister themselves, the employers having only recently stated their own case, i .^Mr T. Burns said that about nine years ago the Minister had promised to have ' boilermakers appointed Government inspec-

i • tors of ships' hulls. It. was -an injustice to ' I the boilermakers .who put all their time in 1 among ironwork- and hulk/ and "then be passed over when it came ' to the appoint-. ' ment of inspectors. In pases where an engineer had been appointed he probably I did not know as much as the boilermaker j who ' was passed over. 'When there were such Urge, contracts being placed outside the Dominion, it was no wonder that boilermakers in Dunedin had had to take up ' navvying to -earn a living As a- body they objected strongly to such conditions pre- '■ vailing. ■Mr Dowden . referred to a rotary kiln [ that had been made In America for a local l cement-making firm. "If this loin had been made in Dun-»din it would have given seven months' wotik, -wherpas now it only provided about two months' work. It w,ae the people of Duuedin who supported this arm, , and - yet it went outride , the country to ; obtain something- that could have been manufactured in Dunedin. The Boilermakers'- Union had endeavoured to have i the Dwnediri.. City Corporation gasholder i made in Dtinedin. but had not been successful. The work Could have, been done just as cheaply here. Even if it had cost £2000 or £3000 more, the whole of the money would have been expended- in the Z>oininion. It was the sanoe -with th« 'rotarykiln that had been imported to Dunedin. The Hon. Mr Millar, in reply, said he regretted Ihat matters were not better in the boilermaking trade. He would refer their rcpresentatiQn? jis topjacing an import duty on- what was manufactured outside the Dominion for local use on to the person who would undertake another tariff revision. He had compiled one, and that was sufficient for any man in a lifetime. He had thought the i.ew tariff) had succeeded in making masters better than they formerly were. In fact, the other day at a function in Wellington, at which he was present, a ir«an had etood up and informed him that he had done more foi New Zealand as far as the tariff was concerned than any other man in the country. He himeelf could find a remedy for the position they complained of, but there were the other members of the House to be reckoned with. If they took away the city 'members, who -were directly interested in labour, and who represented 100 people as against the country member's 72, they were not going to get another man to support him. The men from the country did not want Protection j they wanted absolute Freetrade. They would lower the tariff rates . quickly enough. They argued that as machinery , was required by them to enabJe them to compete with the manufactured article in | the world's market, the cost of production ( must be reduced to a minimum, and. as ; soon as anyone endeavoured to, have a proj tective tariff introduced they raked an ob- ;, jeetion. As far as he was concerned, no , duty would be allowed to be put on any ! goods here which was going to prohibit j competition from outside markets. They ■ would find that the man who could put through a prohibitive tariff was not yet born. He promised to piece their representations before his colleague. He regretted to bear that the local bodies had deliberately sent money out of the country j when their own people were in need of it. I i It showed a great want of patriotism, and j a want of self-interest. j ! The Hon. Mr Paul, M.L.C. : It might, be remedied when we have a proper fran- \ chise. J j The Minister: Possibly. j I Mr Arnold: The people do not take ad- ! vantage of the present franchise. | I Continuing, the Minister said they were going to build a steamer for Lake Waka- , tipu, and it was certainly his intention to -offer to the iron trade in New Zealand an opportunity of tendering for thai boat before tenders were called for outside of the country. Thirty years ago boats were built here and sent away to Sydney. A ! 300-ton steamer was built here 25 years ! back, and there was no reason why the same Hung could not be done now. Ten- { d*rs for t£e Lake Wakatipu steamer would ! be invited in -the Dominion, and the prices ! .would -be compared wi£tr those that had previouaiy been- received by the • •Government tox other boa&t, and he hoped they would be sufficiently olose to justify the Government in entrusting' the work to a New Zealand firm. Mr Bums: £1000 or £2000 would not matter a great deal. The Minister i Wouldn't it! It would be looked upon as £8000 thrown away. In regard to the Hillside Workshops, he , thought they would find that boilermakers were employed there at boilermakers' work. They had no desire to employ cheap ,

labour there or bring down wages, but at the same time they did not jftaut to employ skifled men where unskilled labour would m£»G&. There was a ieeimg in some quarters that «. great dead more work should be sent out by the Government to" private firms. - He dad oiot believe in thai. There were, of course, one or two instances where the cost of works had worked out hijfcer, out that was due to tife . exigencies of conditions', and was not 'the feulfc of the work. Notfcing would be done at the Government shops that would injure the 'boilerraakityr industry, or any other trade. He did not know whether members of Parliament ■ were prepared to deal with tariff revisions this year. He already had four or jive suggestions from ddffecßiafc interests in the country about one alteration in tie tariff, and he would «dbmii them to his colleague and see what he had to say about bhem. He had > always done all he possibly could to foster local industries, and had- always maintained, that the industries of the country should be brougthit up along-side the development of the .country itself.- It, was the only, way, in which to mabe an indepeofdent country. Questioned as to the setting up of a flanging plant, the Minister replied that - the esfealbtisbraettt of such an industry would not be justified.* With a plan* jW installed m Cbristch.xur.cZi that .oesfc £3500, they could flange the end of all the plates required for the 500 or 600 railway engines in New Zealand in one year. These was very little in such a proposal. - The _ deputation thanked the Minister, and withdrew. t