ARBITRATION COURT AWARDS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 9008, 22 November 1907, Page 2

ARBITRATION COURT AWARDS.

LABOR UNIONS’ ATTITUDE CRITICISED. Press Associatoiu. Napier, Nov. 31. At the Arbitration _ Court this morning, Mr Justice Sim spoke of the alterations that were attempted to be made in awards by the Labor Unions simply for the sake of making alterations. He said_ he could not understand why unions should always be wanting to alter awards when the employers were ready to give them what they wanted. When they had nothing else to find fault with, in an award the unions appeared to want to alter the drafting in order to say the same thing. Napier, November 23. Some strong remarks were made by Mr Justice Sim at the Arbitration Court this morning on the manner in which the case for the Napier wharf labourers had been prepared for the Court. Mr McLaren who appeared for the Union questioned some compiled statements of wages submitted by Mr Kirby on behalf of the Shipping i Companies, but His Honor said that this was the only reliable evidence that the Court had had before it. The Union had been of no assistance in the case but had simply brought forward witnesses with bare statements. “Why,’ he asked Mr McLaren, who ho believed was the leading light of Wellington Trades and Labour Council .“did you not advise the unions to bring the cases properly prepared?” I lu the Commonwealth Court the I other day the wives of the workers were called to prove the cost of living and to give reliable evidence. Addressing Mr McLaren directly His Honor concluded “Unions should really produce proper evidence. It is absurd to come into Court with the evidence you have done; it is simply playing with the Court.”