SHEEP SHEARING DISPUTE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 90, 25 July 1910, Page 5

SHEEP SHEARING DISPUTE.

A (ASK Or "AS YOU WERE." By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. (Mr. Pryor, secretary of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, wrote to the Minister of Labor yesterday, as follows: "1 shall he very much surprised to learn that Mr. Triggs, Conciliation Commissioner, Christehurch, lias suggested any such arrangement as set tortH in telegram from the secretary of the Shearers' Union to Mr. T. E. Taylor eaA yourself, as published in this morning's papers. The proposal made would not give the commissioners power to settle the matter. A I they could do would be to submit to the Arbitration Court a joint report on the shearing rates now paid throughout the Dominion. i'he rates paid are perfectly well known to both parties, and could be placed before the Arbitration Court by their witnesses in ten minutes on Tuesday, besides, there is no undertaking on the part of the Shearers' Union that it would abide by the Arbitration Court award, even if the suggestion were adopted. It is therefore a case of "As you were," as the present means nothing. When the Shearers' Union executive is prepared to give a written undertaking that it will give its representatives a free hand to discuss rates of pay, that it will loyally abide by any decisions arrived at, and that it wi'll not take any steps during the currency of the award to prevent workers making engagements to work Bt the prices fixed, the New Zealand Sheepowners' Federation will favorably consider any proposals made to bring' about a settlement 'for a Dominion award. Until the Shearers' Union executive gives that evidence of its honorable intentions in connection with the matter, no notice can he taken of any so-called proposals for settlement."