EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 74, 14 August 1912, Page 7

EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION.

ANNUAL MEETING. | There was not a large attendance at the annual meeting of .the New Plymouth Employers' • Association, which was held in the Municipal Chambers last night. The president (Mr. C. E. Baker) was in the cliair, and in moving the adoption of the annual, report and balance-sheet (published in a previous issue of the News) regretted the paucity of the attendance, but congratulated the Association on its increased membership. He attributed the absence of members to the fact that the' labor atmosphere in ! New Plymouth,was at present quint. Ii there was any trouble in the air the Association would get plenty of members at its meetings. It was a strange thing that employers failed to realise that their interests were bound up with the Association, which was practically an insurance society,, whereby, upon payment of an annual subscription, members insured themselves, not against au labor troubles, which was impossible, but were able to minimise them. The Association did not do a great deal of work in New Plymouth,, because there was not much for it to do. There was an old saying, "Happy is a country that j has got no history," which might well be applied to this town. Judging from the attendance that night, members of the Association appeared to have every confidence in their executive. Continuing, the president said that the main business of the local association was to support the main organisation in Wellington, where the main work was done. It

must be patent to everyone that with the increasing demands of the Labor Party, such an organisation was necessary. The organisation was not up against the honest working man. but I rather against gentry of the type at Wai'hi, who advised the men to do as little work as possible and to injure the machinery and plant of their employers. Were it not for men of that type there would he no need of an Employers' As- ? gociation at all. The red revolutionary j tactics would not pay in the long run. { One only had to look at the practically"! 'ruined town of Waihi to see that. The J workers would soon get tired of strikes { of -that 'kind. As long as their fellow workers were fools enough to contribute strike pay the Waihi strikers would do no work. "While these thing last," coneluded Mr. Baker, "it is absolutely necessary for the Employers' Association to stick together." The motion, which was seconded by Mr. W. F. Brooking, was carried unanimously.

I Officers were elected as follows: President, Mr. C. E. Baker; vice-presi-dent. Mr. T. Avery; hon. auditor, Mr. W. ,C. Weston; lion, treasurer. Mr. T. Avery; executive committee, Messrs. J. McLeod (printing), J. C. Morev (drapers), C. Carter (grocers), E. Dingle (cab-inet-makers), P. Lealand (bakers), A. H. Arnold (ironmongers), H. Honor (wheelwrights), 0. Stewart (tailors), C. Jackson (carpenters), W. 11. Jury (cab proprietors), A. E. Sykes. (chemists), 0. W. Sole (butchers). IT. Evans (bootmakers), [F. C. J. Uellringer (painters), F. W. ' Okev (engineers), H. Goodacre (merchants). j. Abbott (tinsmiths), liortliwick and Co., E. It. Lennon, Mayor of Tfawera, flavor of Stratford, Mayor of Ne'v Plymouth.