SHEARERS AND THEIR PAY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10036, 9 July 1910, Page 6

SHEARERS AND THEIR PAY.

STATEMENT OP THE POSITION. The following statement has : been forwarded to the Minister for Labour by the secretary of the Shearers' Association:— Trades Hall, Christchurcb, 7th July, 1910. To the Honourable the Minister of Labour, Wellington. Sir,—With regard t the Shearers' Dispute: As a good deal of dust is at present being thrown in the eyes ot the general public and of the shearers themselves by the sheepowners and their representatives on the news paper press and elsewhere, I desire to state briefly our position:— 1. Shearing is at present regulated Jn New Zealand by three awards —one in the North Island for 20s and found, and two in the South Island for 18s and found. Thus the shearers in the North Island receive 11 per cent, more money for doing the same work as the men in the South Island. 2. To remedy this state of things the shearers proposed to submit conditions of work which would be suitable for the whole of New Zealand, and with that «nd in view discussed the matter al their conference in Wellington last March, A rough draft set of conditions of some 40 to 50 clauses were printed, embodying many alternative clauaes.and many clauses which would necessarily be rejected before the revised conditions went to.the Court. Before this revision had taken plam. ""he sheepowners themselves drift <S con' ditions and filed a copy of Ihe <,ame CDr.dition3 in different industrial districts.

3. These conditions were first con* sidered in Masterton by the sheepowners and shearers me:ting together, and a partial agreement was arrived at. It was also agreed that undecided points, such as crutching, should be left to the Court. The price in the euipl-iysra, demands was 17s b3, a of 2j 6d per 100 on, the North rate. The shearers declined 10 entertain any reduction, and wanted the rate fixed as formerly agreed to, viz., 203 per 100. 4. Next the same demands of the employers were discussed in .Canterbury, but the Canterbury owners declined to accept the agreement arrived at in Masterton by their fellow sheepowners. 5. Mr Pryor, the secretary of the Employers' Association, alleges now that I, as secretary for the Shearers, declined to let the Court's decision at its first sitting hold good for the Dominion. What I did state, in a private conversation, was that considering the matter had been dealt with first in the Wellington district, and a partial' agreement come to there, I thought Wellington should be the place at which a Dominion Award was considered. We were willing theft, and are willing still, to Ist our conditions of work be settled in the place chosen by the j employers themselves to open proceedings, viz., the Wellington District. I publicly make this statement now: that the shearers are perfectly willing to meat in Wellington representatives of North Island and South and employers and thresh out the whole matter. It is not practicable to take now the Canterbury decision of the court aa a Dominion award because no provisions has been mads for the representation before the Court of employers and workers in other districts. 6. With regard to the reasonableness of the rate of 20s: Mr Pryor has quoted misleading figures in an attempt to show that the shearing rates have, gradually increased for the last few years. Tne fact is that lor many many years the rate was 20s, and it was gradually reduced by the employers to 15s, and an attempt m»de to reduce it to 12s 6d. By organisation the shearers have succeeded in raising the rates to some extent, but even now the rates are not back to their old level of 20s—a rate wnich has prevailed practically without interruption the North Island. 7. With regard to the suggestion that in declining to engage at less than 20s we are "dictating" to the Court: As a fact we are acting on the advice of His Honor Mr Justice Sim given to us in the last hearing of our case in Canterbury. The following extract from the verbatim report proves this:

"His Honor: There was nn maxi-' mum price in the award, udy a , minimum | Witness: But how could they i""t | the maximum except by stri*- j ing? His Honor: They need not take ti.r work; they could go away." That is exactly tho attitude adopted j by the Shearers: We are "going ; away" from the work until we ca.i j get 203 per 100. As for the contention that this constitutes a "strike" | or an "incitement to strike," I quote the following newspaper report of a ruling of His Honor Mr Justice Sim in the Canterbuiy Threshing Dispute: " the zates would only be fixed as minimum rates. \t in a bad eeason men wanted higher rates, it would not te a "atrike" if they refused to work for the minimum rate fixed by the award." 8. I might also point out that when recently an advertisement was inserted in the Otago Daily Times by Mr Waddell and Mr Cooper (two of our memDers), advising shearers not to engage under certain rates, and the matter came before Mr Justice Sim, he held that neither <>t these men were "workers," that is, shearers, because they were i/ot actuallyengaged in that employment at the time. Many men are snearers only for a few weeks in the year; they have other occupations; and now they decline to leave those occupations *or less than 20a per 100 for shearing, They will, as Mr Justice Sim soys?, "go away"' frtm the shearing. in concluison: I suggest that, as soon as possible, ttirea rtfpreseitative North Island owners and three representative South Inland owners meet six representative shearers in Wellington, and confer on the basis of the Masterton Partial Agreement, the present Canterbury awarJ, and the proviso of the present North Island rate, viz., 20s per 100. Such a conference could easily arrive at an agreement; which would ensure industrial peace for the sheepowners J so long as the present conditions of work are maintained. The present difficulties have been manufactured by the employees, through their persistant refusal to meet the n:en in conference. <

I have the honour to be, Sir, Yours faithfully, M. LARACY, Secretary, Shearers' Association.