N.Z. IRONMASTERS' ASSOCIATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 67, 18 March 1908, Page 8

N.Z. IRONMASTERS' ASSOCIATION.

m In the course of his opening remarks at the conference of the N.Z. Ironmasters* Association, held in Christchurch, tho president referred to certain of the notable private engineering contracts lately let in the Dominion as illustrations that a protective tariff would be beneficial. Hydraulic cranes, he said, could be made in the Dominion as well as steam cranes, though they were admitted free. The Wellington Harbour Board had let a contract for hydraulic cranes to J. Anderson and Co., one of the three lowest tenderers, who were all in the Dominion. He believed that the success of this contract and the quality of the work turned out would be the means of instituting a much larger use of hydraulic cranes made in the Dominion. He and some other members of the association had some time ago seen one of the locomotives manufactured under the recent contract let to Messrs. Price and Co. by the Government. They were highly pleased with it, for the engine would compare very well with, if not excel, any of the best locomotives imported into New Zealand. Several questions of interest to the tirade were discussed, and the anomalies in the labour legislation of last session were considered. It was resolved to hold a conference in three or four months' time in Wellington during the session of Parliament, with a view to getting these anomalies removed. Mr. J. P. Luke was elected president of the association, and Messrs. G. Fraser (Auckland), Crabtree (Wellington), J. Anderson (Christchurch), and W. Black (Dunedin), were elected vice-president*.