TIMBER TRADES CONFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 165, 14 July 1902, Page 5

TIMBER TRADES CONFERENCE.

(By Telegtaph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

The Timber Trades Conference resolved to recommend that the Factories Act be amended to provide for 45 hours as a week's work; that lawyers be prohibited from appearing before labour courts; that the Government be urged to push forward tree planting- at a greater rate, and prevent the present waste resulting from a section of special timbers; that State sawmills and timber yards be established to supply the demand for public works; that the Workmen's Compensation Act be amended so as to provide for full pay duringthe first four weeks of illn«ss the result of accident; that the Government request the Imperial Government to inquire as to suitability of New Zealand grown timbers for public works and naval construction; and that a depot be opened in London ■where samples could be seen; that the Government restrict all combines; that all railway sleepers be procured iiKthe colony. The conference expressed approval of the working- of the Arbitration Act, and the integrity of the Court, and regretted "rash utterances by those who had condemned it. Other recommendations were that the Government be asked to legislate in the direction of making it compulsory for workmen to have at least one day's rest in every seven; that it is desirable that Labour be directly represented in the Legislature; that the Government give preference of employment to unionists in State works; that the Factories Act be amended so as' to bring country and city timber workers on an equal footing- as regards payment of overtime. A committee was set iip to facilitate the federation of the timber yards and sawmills unions of the colony. . The has closed.