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50

1239. Our hands are on weekly wages, only four or five being piece-Workers. 1240. In all other respects I consider the Act is very satisfactory indeed. 1241. There are times when it would be a great convenience for us to be able to work longer hours, but I think that would be likely to lead to abuses. Permits I think would lead to a lot of abuse, for the Inspector could not be everywhere, and advantage would be taken. In the interests of employees I think there should be no permits for overtime at all. 1242. W 7 e have to employ extra hands in busy times, but have no difficulty in getting them. In the clothing I have had the same number of hands all through for years. 1243. We pay for legal holidays, but stop three days at Christmas. 1244. I consider we have early closing now, as our establishment keeps open from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m., and till 9 p.m. on Saturdays. 1245. Drapers' assistants are better off in this country than in any other part of the world. 1246. If our girls are tired they may sit down at any time they like ; and if they have ticketing to do they can always sit down to do it. I have never spoken to them about sitting down. 1247. We have a waiting-room upstairs where they may sit down if they require to, and there is a couch there they may lie on if they are not feeling very well. 1248. There is no objection whatever to our female assistants sitting down when they can do so without interfering with business; and there are opportunities when that may be done. I will make the suggestion to the heads of the departments to tell them they may do so. 1249. I consider it is necessary for the convenience of the public to keep open till 9 p.m. on one night of the week —that night being Saturday. 1250. In the drapery department we are generally busy between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the summer, but I think the employers would gain by closing at 5 o'clock on all nights but Saturday. 1251. We have never had any disputes with our employees, and we believe they are perfectly well satisfied with their hours ; but, of course, in every business there are agitators. I can imagine other places where the hands are not satisfied. 1252. If there were a serious difficulty I should be inclined to refer it to outside arbitration. 1253. If the Tailors' Union submitted their dispute to arbitration I think it would be far more satisfactory to both sides. George James Anderson examined. 1254. lam Vice-president of the Typographical Association. I wish to explain that the Typographical Association have no desire for a strike, but that the action of Whitcombe and Tombs is, in our opinion at any rate, practically a lock-out. Mr. Joseph Benjamin Jackson examined. 1255. I am a journeyman benchman, and President of the Christchurch Operative Bootmakers' Union. 1256. We have a Union log, and by that we work. We have one boy to four men—that is, in the benching- and finishing-rooms—and one boy to three men in the clicking-room, and two to five or six or seven. 1257. The strength of our Union is 180 men : that includes benchers, clickers, and finishers. Females are not included. The women are simply in the upper department. 1258. There are four Union factories. There are about close on fifty non-union men, working in about four non-union shops. 1259. The proportion of boy- to man-labour in non-union shops is one to one. In one or two cases it is actually more. 1260. Non-union shops allow work to be taken home. 1261. In two branches the work is piecework, but in the clicking department it is weekly wages. We do not know whether the non-unionists have piecework. 1262. In non-union shops the men are not paid the Union rate of wages. 1263. Our log is different from the Dunedin log. Each town has its own log. 1264. The minimum wages for clickers is £1 15s. 1265. We struck an average for the four busiest weeks of the year, and the average for benchmen was £1 125.; finishers, £2 3s. 1266. I have never known of any boards of arbitration which have been anything but a farce. Personally speaking, we are better with the power we have for enforcing our claims. 1267. There are three points upon which we can, as a local Union, strike at once: these are infringement of boy regulations, employment of non-union hands in Union shops, reduction of wages. Any others we must submit to the decision of the Trades aud Labour Council and the Federated Bootmakers' Union. 1268. We work forty-eight hours a week. 1269. The girls in boot-factories are in separate rooms altogether. 1270. The sanitary arrangements are fairly good. I have worked in all the Union shops here. The closets are separate for the males and females. 1271. In the four large centres there are different prices. Ours is the second lowest, Auckland being the lowest; but they can make as much under their log as we can under ours, as their work is not so good as ours. 1272. It is the intention of the four federated Unions to get out a uniform statement for NewZealand. 1273. The boys are not legally bound to an apprenticeship. It would be far better for the masters and the Union if they were, for it would make them better tradesmen. It is the rule in some shops to give them 75 per cent, of their earnings after they have served six months. Appren-