COMPENSATION INQUIRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 935, 31 March 1930, Page 1

COMPENSATION INQUIRE

LABOUR MAY PROTEST WORK WILL BE CONTINUED From Our Own Correspondent NEW PLYMOUTH, Today. The chairman of the committee which i is inquiring into the Workers’ Com- j pen sat ion Act, Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P.. f was asked on Saturday to comment on \ the suggestion that a section of the j Labour movement might declare the i committee “black”’ because Labour j had not been consulted in the appoint- ] ment of its members-. Mr. Smith said tile committee would go on with its - investigations. Tie would hesitate to .think, that there was any truth in the statement that any of the Labour organisations would take so narrow a’ view ahd prevent the committee from, giving valuable first-hand evidence. The committee had already received a great deal of interesting and informative information from representative . men, and, in addition, the Department of Labour had compiled a list of requests from Labour organisations urging various amendments to the existing Act, and- removal of what' were said to be anomalies. The department also had copies of many resolutions urging an extension of the Act. The committee had to continue its sittings on Tuesday, and it had already a list of. witnesses prepared to give evidence. If the committee had been declared “black,” it would make no difference to its work, except that it would be. unfortunate if a few men with an intimate knowledge of the working of the Act were prevented from -giving the benefit of their years of experience. Mr. J. Roberts, secretary of the New Zealand Alliance of Labour, who has been in New Plymouth in connection with Arbitration Court proceedings, stated that owing to his absence from Wellington he did not know whether the committee to inquire into the Act had been declared “black” or not. He would say, however, that the Labour movement took the strongest exception to the action of the Government in appointing a representative of Labour on the committee without consulting the movement, as for many years past the Government had always consulted Labour organisations when appointing a representative of the movement on any committee of inquiry.