ARBITRATION COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 102, 1 May 1902, Page 2

ARBITRATION COURT.

Before Hi 3 Honour Mr Justice Cooper (President), and Messrs Brown and Slater. printers' dirPute. The Court sat to heir the appeal by the Taranaki Lstterpi e«, Lithographers and Machinists Union from the award of the Concilia'iou Boird, Mr Black conduct'd the case on behalf of theUuion, and Mr W. J. Peon, Taranaki Herald, represented the employeis, tho following of whom were present, Messrs E. G. Allswr.rth, Daily News; Parkinson, Ha vera cilar; Clayton, Kgmoiit Post; Alexander, Jigmonl Settler; Hamerton, Inglawood liecord ; Nor worthy, Waitara Mail; T. Av'ry, A. Am bridge, J. Hooker, Mr Pann also repr sauted Mws Brennan and Armstrong, Opanake Times, and Messrs Walton a:.id Andr.ws, Manai i Witness. Mr Carncrots, Eltham *rgits was also represented. Mr Eckdahl (Hawera) did notappiar, Mr Clayton applied on behalf of tho provincial employers to be dismissed from the citation, as the dispute was practically confined to New Plymouth. . Ha was supported in this by Messrs i Alexander, Hamerton and Nosworthy. 1 Mr Penn objected to the request o i the ground that it was only fair r.hit ' all the employers in the district should , be on ths same footing, i Mr Black also opposed the appli- ■ cation. 1 After consulting, the Court decided i that it could not accede to the rtqu ft ßt, i but intimated that the award could hit made so as to fix car tain conditions as 1 to New Plymouth f iaployce-', and other ' condit ions for country employees, i Mr Black state! the amount of ■ wages pud by the two local papsrs, ' pointing out that though Tiraniki had ' increased in prnsp 'rity, the wages of , compositors hid gone down. >'e subi mitted that thsre wro incompstant 1 men employed, and that these should be discharged. Printing was a dead j trade, machines supplanting labour. He contended also tint apprentices i should be kt*pb down, aad that the wage j fjr day bauds should be £3, and for ; night hands £3 5.", J The employers notifi d that they did i not propose to call any witnesses, i The Coui tad j ourned for luncheon. J Oq resuming, Mr Black called Hon. W. T. Jennings, M.L.C.. who stated he found in many cases that articles of food consumption were ■ higher in price here thin in Aucklond. He gave details of the wages pqid in ' Auckland. In his experience holidays " had generally bean paid for. To the Court: Living in New Ply- : mouth was, on the whole, cheaper than ■ in Auckland. ; Sidney Trask, compositor on the , Daily News, was then exauaiued, and stated the wages paid in that office and : the hours of work. Was not satisfied 1 with the wages, ajid had never been ap- ; proached by the manager as to whether he was satisfied with his wag s. To Mr Allsworth: Had nevjr applied for an increase in wages. W. J. Penn was then called, and stated the monoliuo machines had been introduced recently into his office (tbe Taranaki Herald). They had two 1 machines, and were getting another, The capacity of the machines, under ! expert hande, is 12,000 ens per hour, ! The Her«ld operators at present did 1 about 5000 to 6000 ens of corrected matter. Mr Hamerton asked what the employers' position was in the case. His Honor: There was a dispute in the labour district of Wellington, which included Taranaki, The Court had no power to restrict the dispute to apy part of the distqqt, unleai evidence wos adduced to show the speciil conditions of such a portion of the labour district. j Mr Nosworfchy said the country papers would accept the award made in the case of the Canterbury county papers. Eiwin Gill Al'sworth, manager of the Daily News, gave evidence. He represented the only morning piper in the district. He was prepared to leave the question of wages to the Court, and agreed that night hands should be p iid 1 5s a Wi-ek higher than for day hnnds. 1 He gave his views as to the minimum wagts. The men had not approached j him on the question of a rise in wagoa, j The coit of living was very much less! in New Plymouth than in S'lutford.! It was recognised that New Plymouth wiis ooe of the cheip st, places iu the colony to Jive in. Tlierj was a little j (difficulty in getting bound appren- j tice*. j J W. J Ponn (resworn), stated hn; office was quioe willing to accept the' award of the Court and m> cone <;?e the country papers whit th,-y wished in ; regard to apprentice;:. As to the com-! petition, that wasnot so tnueu a question j of circulation as of business, Tiie New i Plymouth papers circulated as much or j more in some of the country districts i and to ik away local bodies' advertisements, The Waimate Witness and Opunake 7imes. were willing to agree to the award suggested by the Conciliation Board. Mr Clayton urged that it would be obviously unfair to expect an employer to pay the full wages for a machinist to work, say, threj days a week. His Honor said th'i Court would, of course, consider thes i points. j The President said he did not personally favour tlie emp'oyniant of girls at typesetting, which wasjan unhealthy trade, and that they should not be encouraged. In the Scmrh Island they found girls had heen piid wages on 1 which it was obviously impo-sibie f.»r! ( them to live without outside assistance. Mr Hooker alto spoke aa to the ■ wages of jobbing hands aod litbo- | graphers. i The President intimated that the award might be expected to I>9 revdy next week. Tii© Court then rose,