SHEARERS' CONFERENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 28 March 1913, Page 5

SHEARERS' CONFERENCE.

SERIES OF RESOLUTIONS. QUESTION OF ACCOMMODATION. SOME EXTRAORDINARY ASSERTIONS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Last -Night. The Shearers' .Conference continued its sitting, Mr Cooper presiding. It was resolved that a deputation wait upon the Minister of Labour, urging the necessity of amending the Arbitration Act, to enable Dominion Unions to be registered, and other matters. It was resolved that the Conference advocate preference to Unionists when obtaining the next award. Various matters with regard to accommodation were debated at length, and a committee was set up to .report to the'conference next day. Mr McL-fxxl (organiser) said he had found in FT a •rko'fi Bay, in the course of his orgn.nifiin.tr work, whares that contained no luniks at all. The worker frnen and <romen) were huddled together a.t night on the floor like -pigs, and this not in one place, but in manv places. Mr Cooper ('President) said he had seen them sleeping thus on open verandahs. >Mr McLeod, contimiine:, sa.frl thatthe local constnb'A had reported favourably in j'egaj'd x o one nlace, and vet it Twid been n wreck fc* veai , <! naist. The sky could be seen through the roof. There wa-s~ not a sinclo bunk in the place, and the whole braiding was anchortxl to the ground with wires, to keep it in place. There were no sanitary crmd'tions. At another station there were twenty-five workers (men and wouku) using the same sanitary convenience (there wa.s j only the one). Here the roof let in j the. rain like a .sieve, i'liat- was-the' condition of things in m,riv places in Hawke'is Bay. His duties had taken him through the Wa : tota-r;i. Stratford and Ta-raniaki distriacs. and in some cases the accommodation was even -worse than described p v eviousily. At one plaoe, in a l'ut about I tft by 14ft, eight Maoris cooked and slept. ' There nas not a bunk in the olace—merely a few dry ferns thrown on the floor. He knew tlliat these ev -ls existed, and that the present inspection was a pure farce. •Mr Gra-.vnd.ler *aij he had had, ns > a shea.rer, similar expe-iencefi He had been .shearing a smt.on where 46 men were in one hut. a„d thr„ ff h the bad condition, uere f. a the, mspector, the men n „ satisttt * « MOthor similes of Ma-sterton, iho a^mmdot»o„ T„ ,„ nt her b ; ,d tbei-e were n.actica-lly no arrancements ZZSTT*' d ™ the -sleep.ng and earing nnd thin Bft was a r1,..0i„ of «ml dogs and dead sheen. Even--tim.,.<s it- iva.s hoiTible. The Question of re L >isf,- v offices , v .o. s tlehated at lenrrt,]!. and the conference adjourned till next dnv.