FARM LABORERS' DISPUTE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 159, 26 June 1908, Page 2

FARM LABORERS' DISPUTE.

CANTERBURY CONCILIATION BOARD'S REPORT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christehurch, Thursday. The recommendations of the Board of dispute were made public to-night. The recommendations, summarised, arc as follow: Hours of Work. For ploughmen, 0 a.m. to 8 p.m., but not more tlnm 8 hours in light chains, except at harvest half an hour to be allowed for breakfast, and one hour fov dinner. A ploughman is defined as a man wholly or partially engaged to work with and attend ,to horses. The hours of work of day laborers and general farm hands are not to exceed S per day, exclusive of one for dinner. Hours for harvest work are aiot to exceed 10 per day, exclusive of two hours for meals. !

Wages.—Ploughmen, 245, with an additional 2s for each horse over four; smart ploughing with six horses 30s per week; wages to he in addition to, board and lodging; ploughmen's 1 wages to cover the necessary attendance to horses on Sundays; general farm hands, 24s in addition to hoard; day laborers, Us 6d per day; casual laborers, Is per hour; men employed at draining, Is per hour, guui boots to be supplied by the employer; harvest hands (except stackers), £2 15a per week or Is 3d >:,■ i- hour, with board; ■stackers, £3 or Is fld, with board; boys of 17 years, 15s; 18 years, 17s (id; 19 years, 20s; 20 years, 22s Gd; 21 years, 245; all in addition to board. Overtime to be paid for at the rate of time and a-quarter; for Sundays, {line and a-half, except for necessary time occupied in attendance on liorses jind cattle.

Christolmrch, Last Night. The minority reports from the Canterbury Conciliation Board regading the farm laborers' dispute were made available to the newspapers this afternoon. Both dissent from the finding of the majority of the Board for reasons specified:: (1) Employers objected that- the evidonca showed there never had been any real dispute between farmers and genuine laborers; (2) until a few men employed in trades in the city visited tho farming centres for the purpose of organising farm -laborers, no trouble of any consequence between masters and men liad arisen; (3) the weight of evidence wiw against, the wisdom or the necessity of making an award applicable to the farming industry. The workers' representatives' objections are mostly on the question o£ wages, but include also questions of holidays, wages, and conditions of marriei couples, threshers, contract work, milking, and preference to unionists.