STONEMASONS’ DISPUTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 583, 8 February 1929, Page 13

STONEMASONS’ DISPUTE

ANSWER TO WORKMEN IS TRADE UNHEALTHY?

A reply to the statements of Mr. J. Purtell anent the stonemasons’ dispute was given by Mr. W. Parkinson this morninng. Mr. Parkinson said the secretary of the union had rung him up. seeking the loan of a surfacing machine for demonstration purposes in order that the public might judge upon the merits of its operation, but unfortunately his machines were damaged through water being in the cylinders. In any case, he said, it would have been unwise to place too much faith in such a demonstration, because the machines were of such a character that minute skill was required in their operation, and misuse could make them operate much worse even than the union claimed.

In respect to the dust from the machines, Mr. Parkinson explained that at the last sitting of the Arbitration Court the Union brought two doctors, who swore that the stonemason trade was very unhealthy. Under cross-examination, however, they further swore that not a single instance of ill-health due to the pursuance of stonemasonary as a calling had ever come under their notice.

“The fact is,” Mr. Parkinson said, “that some stone is unhealthy, particularly those from which grindstones and the like are taken, while others are quite all right. Taken on the average, however, I think the stonemasons of Auckland are a particularly healthy looking lot of men.”

The application of common-sense seemed to be the remedy for the dust nuisance—just as common sense had provided the remedy for the dry crushing nuisance in the gold-digging days.