Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 646, 24 April 1929, Page 6

Trades and the Workers

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“ARBITER"

The Arbitration Court is still sitting jat Auckland. Compensation cases | and several award questions have been i dealt with, and the court has about 10 davs to go before its members again | go" South. The Hand That Feeds Them • Mr. A. J. Cook, the miners’ secretary at Home, has been condemned by his Communist friends because he upheld the Prince of Wales in his denunciation of the slum areas. The point is that Mr. Cook was big enough to give his support against the feelings of his associates—a performance which many of his associates lacked sufficient courage to execute. As usual these worker-Communists want to have their cake and eat it. They want the Prince to defy British aristocracy and tell the world of the dreadful conditions of the slums, and they want as well to continue the campaign against the man who is helping them. However, so long as they go on with that outlook they will not get anywhere, so the world will not suffer much. The Reason Why According to Mr. Justice Frazer, the Arbitration Court finds more difficulty in reaching a decision in industrial awards than explaining why the decision was made. The point was raised yesterday in the cooks’ and stewards’ dispute, when Mr. Kennedy cited the practice of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court in support of his plea. His Honour, in reply, said that the Australian Court was a purely judicial court, cor % ting of judges solely, and was consequently able in all cases to give the reasons for its judgments. “Our he added, “is, of course, differently constituted. The judge has sitting with him two members appointed to represent different and opposing interests; and I can assure you that it would be exceedingly difficult for us to agree on the reasons for all our decisions. It is far easier to agree on a decision than on a statement of the reasons for that decision. If you Were in my place for a few months you would appreciate the difficulty.” Maori on the Land A suggestion that a farmer near Tau* piri had taken advantage of the native simplicity of his Maori employee was made in the Supreme Court yesterday in a case in which William Campbell, a half-caste Maori farmer, of Te Akau (Mr. Holmden), sought to recover £429 from J. IT. Davies, settler (Mr. Rawson). Plaintiff claimed that this was owing to him as wages for managing defendant’s farm at Matira from November. 1925, to Sepember, 1928. at £3 a week. He said the only sum paid to him by defendant was £24 for eight weeks’ wages. The defendant denied that any sum was owing to plaintiff, or that the £24 had been paid as wages.

It was said plaintiff had had scant education. He could read and write Maori, but not English. He had from time to time made demands for his wages, but had always been put off with one excuse or another. The defence raised, that plaintiff was on Matira solely on a share-milking contract, showed that the defendant was endeavouring to take advantage of the simplicity of the Maori. The plaintiff did much more than would come within , the scope of a share-milker. He built roads, and did fencing, clearing, sowing, manuring and droving. He looked after the defendant’s sheep, doing all that was required for them. It was shown, moreover, that the farm had improved about 50 per cent, since Campbell went on it. The defendant denied he had ever appointed Campbell as his manager, and stated ho had allowed him to try his luck at share-milking on a fiftyfifty basis. The judge is considering his decision. Labour in the City A little thought for the worker in the municipal area was given by Mr. T. Bloodworth, Labour’s nominee for the Mayoralty in his campaign addresses: “There seems to be an idea about that working men are not ratepayers and therefore not interested in problems of rating,” he said. “This is a great mistake as the figures show. The population of Auckland at March, 1927, was 90,140; the number of ratepayers, 22,263, and as population includes men, women and children, the figures indicate that one person in four, or roughly, the head of each family is a ratepayer. If you examine the figures for the surrounding boroughs which are more residential in character, the proportion is about the same. Even if a worker does not pay rates, direct he does indirectly, because we all know that business- firms include rate charges in their costs, and pass the costs on to their customers.”

Girl industrialists An illustration of how girls can replace men as units in industry was given recently, when evidence was advanced in the Australian Arbitration Court that unskilled labourers, - even boys and girls, can perform the most delicate engineering work with the aid of modern machinery. One witness said that in England during the war .he was employed in a factory where there were 15,000 hands, and of that number a very small proportion only were skilled mechanics such as he claimed to be. Most of the work, and practically all the production work, was carried on in various stages—all by juvenile labour, chiefly girls. He found that the operators had no knowledge of the fundamental principles of the machines they worked. All they knew was how to move a lever and set a machine in motion, and to throw in a feed lever which automatically tripped up when the cutters had passed for the work. Their duty was just to try a gauge, *which had a very close limit. The work passed from one girl to another, and so right along the line of machines until it reached the end of the line a completed piece of work. It then went to the inspection department. Strange to say, the rejections after work had passed through all these unskilled employees, were only about three per cent. Timber’s Gloomy Prospect The prolongation of the timber workers’ strike in Australia is emphasising the difficulties in a trade with a gloomy outlook. Figures have been quoted showing that the average return on the capital invested in Sydney timber yards during the past' five years is 2.2 per cent.; and the hope has been expressed that the reversion to the 48 hour week will save some of the establishments, employing large numbers of men, from extinction. But what of the country sawmills section of the industry, where there is, and has been, a 48-hour week? Officially prepared figures show that in New South Wales the bush sawmill owners are making less than 2 per cent, on invested capital, while in Victoria they are carrying on at a serious loss. In Tasmania, also, the industry is being carried on at a loss, while in Western Australia the considerable export trade on which the sawmills once flourished has shrunk very considerably. In the bush mills of Victoria the turnover has fallen from £218,257 in 1923 to £164,572 in 1927. The turnover figures are not available in respect of the other States. Mr. Justice Dethridge, speaking in the Arbitration, Court recently, said: “There seems little doubt that timber is being largely displaced by other materials used in building, at any rate in New South Wales and Victoria.- In South Australia it appears to be holding its own. . . . Industries supplying the substituted material are profiting at the expense of the timber industry, but this does not alleviate the situation for either the employers or employees in that industry.”