“NO REMARKS ON GAME.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 17, 18 January 1913, Page 7

“NO REMARKS ON GAME.”

SLAUGHTERMEN ARE NOT COMMUNICATIVE.

To the casual observer (says the ‘New Zealand Times’) there is no sign of ceasing work in the slaughterhouses of the meat companies at Ngaliauranga and Petone. Both are working at high pressure, and when the hmeh hour is being taken there is a total absence of conversation among slaughtermen relative to the termination of the agreement with the companies and the order to cease killing if the union’s demands are not acceded to. In answer to the question, “What is the slaughtermen’s opinion on the position?” one dresser of mutton replied: “The notice placed in public billiard-rooms, ‘You are requested not to make remarks on the game,’* fully explains the position in which most slaughtermen find themselves.” “Taking all things into considers tion,” vouchsafed an old hand, “there are a number of ns who are willing to accept the companies’ offer of 27s 6d per hundred, as we are fully aware a stoppage of work will not be to our benefit.” “There will be a strike, without doubt,” said a prominent company official, “and the .Gear and Meat Export Companies will close down.” Why the Wellington companies are picked out on each occasion by the union officials to start the ball rolling is not explained. There are comparatively few lambs, arriving at the works, and it is mostty fat sheep that are being slaughtered. About seventy-five butchers are employed at the Gear Company’s works at Petone, of whom upwards of fifty are local married men with families. The cessation of slaughtering at these works will be the cause of throwing over fonr hundred men out of employment who are not parties to the dispute.