LABOUR DAY PROCESSIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 145, 19 June 1906, Page 4

LABOUR DAY PROCESSIONS.

MR MILLER TAKEN TO TASK. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) i_ WELLINGTON, this day. - The "Times" takes Mr Miller severely to task for his statements before the Arbitration Court in Auckland concerning - Labour Day and the workers. "Nothinf . we think can be more irrational" «*yr ■ the morning journal, "than to declare that the Labour Day procession is 'prae--.; tically a menace' to the employers. K\>- ;- anything is likely to give it a spirit of |>| menace and defiance, it is just this wild acceptance of it as a challenge. Be> fk sides being irrational, however, it» ". impolitic and subversive of the interest! " of industrial peace, and it was with is>-. tonishment that we read amongst th* || other remarks an observation \by MB Miller to the effect that 'this bitter fael* ing, which we are sorry to Bay is grow ing between masters and men, should be discountenanced in every poaaiblaj j way.' Assuming that such a bitter feel" ; ing really is growing np, which we; d«. not believe, it is hard to see how.«od| ill-judged, ill-natured and imprudenttaljfc as Mr Miller's can do anything but ■#"..".-■ gravate it. If an employer sets out with a jaundiced determination to see me* - aces and affronts where neither menae*' nor affront is dreamed of, that is no I«g» son at all why Labour Day proeessiCßlj should Ke abandoned. The treatment should begin with the can ; ployer, and, if anything is to be tn»* countenanced, it is the attitude of 10 : Miller which is a menace to our i*4*" trial peace."

The statements made by Mr WDtfy which the -"Times" refers to, -were as.fid* low:—"In regard to Labour Day the union now ask to be paid for as » holiday, the Court did not include this ia the previous award, and we think wisely so, for why should masters be compeße* to pay men for a holiday which they use in a procession through the to** practicaUy as a menace to their matters T' It is like going back to the ti*» in the Old Country when it was not safe for a Roman Catholic to be out ** Orangeman's Day, nor an Orangeman on St. Patrick's Day. This bitter feeling that we are sorry to say is growing h*" tween masters and men should be discountenanced in every possible way. The union claim that they do not wish to work on any holiday (that is why they ask treble wages if -they are compellen to), and yet what do we see on Labour Day. About every horse and ttrrn-jou* in the town is in these senseless pjo* cessions, and the men in a great mi»y cases sit up half the night decorating their horses and carts for the day. Whilst we have to close our business oa Labour Day we do not see why we should have to pay our men holiday wages. Holidays are on the increase every y** l ' and in* each award before the Court demands aro made by tho union for teore.