LABOUR IN DAIRY FACTORIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 25 May 1907, Page 2

LABOUR IN DAIRY FACTORIES.

THE illiVS DJiJIAXDS COXSiJJlifiiiD, Our Stratford correspondent writes; On lhursday was licld what was truiy termed, In- those attending, iln- most important meeting that has been held for some time. It was a meeting of cheese and butter factory directors to consider the proposals submitted to ilieni by the Taranaki Dairy Factory Employees Association re conditions and pay for services. Our late Premier, toward* the end of bis illustrious career, considered that labor was begm--1 niug to gut beyond its legitimate bounds with regard to its demands, and i|uaV this meeting substantiated that statement is only too true, but the end of the trouble no one can foresee, because its effect is so far-reaching. The * .staple products of Taranaki are cheese and butter, and in spite of the prosperity that lias spread over the province i through its influence, that prosperity ! has only been attained by the cheap labor of the settlers' family. Tho market for dairying, as everyone knows, who has to employ is too fickle, and in many cases the demands of the employee too great, so that the profits, to any employer for dairying, have almost reached the vanishing point, a'nd the seeming prosperity in a number of cases is a delusion and a fraud. Now the labor union has stepped in and all the economic conditions are awry and discussion is spread broadcast, and men who a short time ago were without anytrade or calling are now practically in possession of a profession, which they obtained gratuitously, and in some eases compelled to take an aggressive attitude towards their employers. In niv opinion it will simply mean that the poorer class of land will go back in value, which must affect the better lands, and so Taranaki is on the eve of a backward step. Either that or the fanners will have to take a firm stand and place their sons in factories ami work the dairy industry on a purely cooperative system. The farmer is a m»m of resource, and the men who combatt.id the troubles of pioneering are too sturdy to be beaten by any labor union, anvl when put to it will face the difficulty ns becomes the descendants of the British race. Nothing definite was done with regard to proposals submitted, but another meeting is shortly to be held at Kltlmm at which a definite course of action with regard to the demands will be taken.

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