PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20992, 20 December 1939, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents whose letters are welcome, but for whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. It is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule is complied with, their letters will not appear.

SERVING TWO MASTERS

(To the Editor) Sir, —It has been said, with truth, that you cannot serve two masters, for you will love the one and hate the other, or you will love the one and despise the other. The position is not an easy one when we consider the system of party politics. “Looking Forward” has criticised my letter relative to the non-attendance of our member at the recent mass meeting. My critic is in error when he states that it was “an importers’ meeting.” It was a representative meeting of all classes of citizens. Under the present state of affairs our member had to choose between two conflicting elements, the Labour Party and the electorate. He chose the former. His duty was to his electorate, not to the party.

My attack upon our member is not upon a status or upon the reason Cor the meeting; I attack the system. The position of any member of Parliament who subscribes to an overruling pledge is untenable when forced up against a meeting such as was held on December 4 last. The remarks in my critic’s last paragraph are outside the question at issue. Whatever business our member had in Wellington, he sacrifices much by ignoring the greater for the lesser.— I am, etc., ONLOOKER. Hamilton, December 19.

FREEZING WORKERS’ WAGES

(To the Editor) Sir, —I am requested by the representatives of the men employed at Horotiu to enter a protest on their bejialf against certain publications in local newspapers in connection with the rates of wages paid to the men employed in the cool stores at the works. The rates of pay published by you are in detail correct, except in respect to the rate of 4s Id for January 2. The rate under our award is 2s 9d an hour. Furthermore, the rates published are not of recent introduction but have been in force since the “stay-in” strike three years ago, so if your informant has just discovered them he has somewhat slipped on his job. Next I am asking your informant if he can supply to me any date that these rates have been actually paid, for as I personally was in the employ of the dairy industry for many years I know that butter is not railed to the works on the statutory holidays —to my knowledge since the year 1914—unless in the event of a breakdown in the dairy factory cool-stor-age system.

I don’t want to be nasty or abusive but there are some people outside our circles who seem to consistently comply with this standard of citizenship. However, if they persist I can assure them I can, when required, mix it with them and give full measure too, but I much prefer honesty and truthfulness in all things. Further, there is a report published locally, not by the Times, that the butchers at Horotiu were refusing to work between the holidays of Christmas and New Year. That is not true. We have for three weeks been negotiating with the A.F.F. Company with the view of eliminating work in this period, and had a train of negotiations going in connection with the abattoir requirements, as we extended every due consideration to all people who are affected by actions here, and we had volunteers ready to act as supply for the shop butchers’ needs if the works had shut.

The position as it stands is that our deal with the company broke down, due to the good old system of competition, by the competing company staying open. I also invite any responsible person who is keenly interested in our deals to come and peruse the correspondence that passed between us and the'A.F.F. Company in the matter, as I can assure you and them that we have nothing to hide. Also I note a great deal of published discussion on the high earnings of the freezing workers. Well, sir, I am wondering if I am listening to a repetition of Rip Van Winkle, because in years gone by, under the Governments that have been in this country, in their various shades of Toryism, the individual earnings of the workers in the freezing works were higher than they are today. I suggest that the introduction of machinery has something to bear upon this feature; it certainly has in slaughtering. So where were these squealers and moaners then, when the Governments they loved so dearly allowed the workers to earn such good wages and did not make such disquieting political propaganda of the situation, or hold mass meetings of protest? I would like to point out that if the workers have been making such a high call upon the resources of primary production, how is it that since the advent of the Labour Government the meat companies have not missed a year when they have been declaring shareholders’ dividends, whilst for many years past under Toryism they seldom paid a dividend? Further, the large sums carried forward each year, after making immense building alterations, make one wonder at the gullability of people who cannot read a balancesheet with any degree of accuracy in these days of advancement and education.

Lastly, I would ask of these folk if they think the working man in works or elsewhere are made synthetically in some “Bolshie” factory, and as such are suitable objects to vent unlimited spleen upon. I invite these wailers to the works any day, and they will be shown a pleasant, healthy, happy body of Britishers, and nearly all of them sons of farmers. They are continually wondering if the people who so vilely attack them from outside are actually British and Christian citizens of this land or not. —I am, etc., A. THOMPSON. For and on behalf of Horotiu workers. Horotiu, December 19.