W. T. YOUNG.]

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this Bill undergoes a radical alteration, I remain, &c, P. C. Buckley, President." The Wellington Tramway Union has also considered the Bill, and passed a resolution against it, and decided that this circular letter, embodying the resolution, should be forwarded to members of Parliament: "Wellington, 3rd September, 1907.—Dear Sir, —I have the honour, by direction of the aforesaid union, to transmit to you the hereinafter resolution, which was unanimously adopted at a meeting of members held on the Ist instant: 'That this union enters a strong and emphatic protest against the Conciliation and Arbitration Act Amendment Bill, 1907, in respect to the proposals (1) to abolish Conciliation Boards and'replace them with Industrial Councils; (2) authorising employers to deduct 25 per cent, of the wages due to a worker in -order to liquidate any fine that might be imposed; (3) prohibiting unions from registering under the Trade Union Act; (4) compelling non-unionists to contribute to the funds of the union, and restricting those unions in respect to the use of their funds; (5) prohibiting persons other than those who have been or areemployed in the trade the union represents from occupying the position of an officer or occupying a seat on the management committee in any union.' lam further directed to point out that none of the propositions specified in the above resolution have been asked for by the workers, and, as my union is strenuously opposed to these becoming law, the members seriously desire that you should exercise your influence and vote in the House in the direction of having those provisions struck out of the Bill, thereby assisting to conserve the very best interests of the union, along with those of the workers generally throughout New Zealand. —On behalf of the aforesaid union, and trusting to have your hearty support and co-operation in the direction indicated, I am yours faithfully, W. T. Young, Secretary." I have also been in communication with the secretary of the Duuedin Union, Mr. Breen, who is also secretary of the Trades and Labour Council in that city, and he sent me this letter, which is dealing with the matter generally, and may be of some interest to the Committee as to the feeling of the unionists at Dunedin in respect to the Bill: "Trades Hall, Dunedin, 11th October, 1907.—T0 Mr. W. .T. Young, Queen's Chambers, Wellington.—Dear Friend, —The newspaper report of a meeting of the Carpenters' Society was the only information I was in a position to forward you on receipt of your letter. Since then I have been informed that at the time the statement was made by the Hon. J. A. Millar in reference to the Bootmaker's Union nothing had been done by that body further than to condemn the clause re officering unions. Since then the bootmakers have gone fully into the various amendments, and have forwarded a copy of the resolutions passed to the Minister and Messrs. A. R. Barclay and J. F. Arnold, M.P.s. So far as I can gather, the only union that has expressed itself favourable to any clause is the Carpenters' Society, and in that respect the newspaper report is correct. The statements made by Mr. Millar before the Bills Committee are on a par and just as misleading as the one he made to a representative of the Christchurch Press in reference to a deputation of leading citizens who waited on him while in Dunedin, and expressed their approval of his amendments. At the Council meeting the delegates present denied having any knowledge of who comprised the deputation. I have since heard that the deputation consisted of three members of the Carpenters' Society, but that they had no authority to appear on behalf of the society. My own opinion is that they simply went to see Mr. Millar in a friendly way for the purpose of assuring him that they did not approve of the hostility that had been shown to him and his amendments. I have no doubt that Mr. Millar will not forget them when there are any appointments to be made. It would be worth while for you to get a copy of the resolutions that the bootmakers passed, because I understand that they are anything but favourable to the Bill.—Yours faithfully, R. Breen." I have the newspaper clipping here of the consideration that was given to the Bill by the Dunedin Carpenters' Union, and it shows that they had given consideration to six points. They approved of three and disapproved of three, and, according to Mr. Breen's advice, the Carpenters' Union is the only union that has approved of the Bill. 4. Hon. Mr. Millar.] That is as far as you know? —Yes. 5. The Chairman.] Have you anything from Christchurch?—Just a brief statement from the secretary that they do not approve of the Bill. Going back to the Tramway Federation, I might say that, so far as clause 53 of the Bill is concerned, if that is passed into law it will affect four Tramway Unions' secretaries in the colony at once, to say nothing about the other officers or members of the management committees. 6. All the secretaryships are held by men other than employees?--That is so. I might also mention that before I took over the secretaryship for the Wellington Union they had a man acting in that capacity who was employed as a motorman. His name was Richardson, and he was not in an independent position so far as his employers were concerned, and the result was that the union did not appear to prosper, and when I took it in hand it merely had a membership of sixtyseven, with about £5 to its credit. Its membership is now up to 375, and I suppose it has a credit balance, roughly speaking, at the present moment of about £150, and there are very few men in. the service now who are outside the union. We claim the right as an organization to employ whom we choose as our officers, just the same as any company registered under the Companies' Act claims and exercises the right to emplo)- whom it chooses as manager. If the members of the union are satisfied that an unskilled man, or a man that is not acquainted with the highly technical nature of the occupation—as I have heard it stated this morning—is better able to conduct its affairs than a man who is highly skilled, then I think the union should be allowed to exercise that right. And I would like to say this : that the duties of the officers are defined, and that appears to me to be overlooked. The duty of an officer is defined in every union's rules, and it does not necessarily follow, because a man occupies the position of an officer of a union that he must necessarily go along to the Board or the Court—whichever you choose—and plead a case on behalf of the union.. Under the Act the union can choose whom it likes to represent it before the Board or the Court. If it chose it could go to Porirua and get one of the patients to represent it; but in that case the authorities, of course, have power to prevent the patient leaving the institution. So that an officer of a union is not required to know everything concerning the technicalities of the trade after all. 16—1. 9a.