THE SHEARERS' DISPUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 16, 16 July 1910, Page 11

THE SHEARERS' DISPUTE.

APEEAL TO THE MINISTER. "TEE COURTS PKEJUDGMENT. - <By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") CHRISTCHURCH, this day. A great many unionists have expressed themselves in strongly indignant terms to-day concerning the treatment accorded to the Shearers' Dispute by the Judge of the Arbitration Court yesterday. Tlta Shearers' Association has decided to seek the intervention of Parliament, and the following letter has been addressed by the secretary, Mr M. Laracy, to tile Minister of Labour:—'"l enclose copy of report of the hearing of the Canterbury Shearers' 'Dispute at the Arbitration Court yesterday morning, and request you to bring this matter before Parliament immediately. A copy of this letter has also been -sent to Mr T. K. Taylor. You will observe from this condensed report that the Judge of the Arbitration Court has taken up the -utterly indefensible and unwarrantable position of declining to hear evidence of any kind on behalf of the shearers, and yesterday he told -us in effect, not once but several times, that unless we complied with the demands of the employer* he would restore freedom of eontra-ct. The following extracts from a verbatim report established this fact: His Honor: 'Unless the parties eomo to some agreement the Court -will have no option except to restore freedom of contract, having regard to the position taken up by the Union, and you will have to enter into this conference in a somewhat more chastened spirit than you have displayed hitherto. Unless the Union makes proper submission the Court will restore freedom of contract. Unless the Court is satisfied that the Union has abandoned its quite indefensible position, freedom of contract will be restored. The parties mint ajrree on the rates, or the Court will restore freedom of contract, and the Union must. abandon its quite indefensible position'; thus (1) we have the Arbitra-tion Court Judge, in sporting phrase, giving the employers tho tip that all they have to do is to' Sit tight-on the 17s t>d demand, and the shearers will be deprived of all protection under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. In this connection I draw your attention to Webster's definition of the word conciliate, 'to win over, to #am from a state of hostility, to gain the goodwill or favour of. to make friendly, to mollify, to propitiate, to appease.' and I ask you to contrast this with the attitude of his Honor Mr Justice Sim in tho Canterbury jhearets' dispute in his attempt to coerce the shearers into agreement with the sheepowners' demands. (2) We have the Arbitration Court Judge giving the Court's decision before he has heard one tittle of the evidence in regard to the equity of our claim tor "20s per hundred. I think you will agree thai for these two reasons alone we are perfectly justified in asking Parliament to override so manifest a travesty, not only of arbitration and conciliation, but also of common justice. 1 believe Parliament is already convinced of the justness; of our rate of 20s, and I shall not therefore mar.-hal now the reasons we ha.ye for making it. 1 have only to inform you that the demand would have bora amply supported by the evidence, not only of shearers, but also of sheepowwra we proposed to call. As this evidence has been shut out from publicity by the prejudiced derision of Mr Justice Sim. we desire you to lay the matter before Parliament, with a view of protecting not only shearer?, but all "workere, - from such judicial threat.-, of Doing deprived of iheir industrial rights and privileges. As a matter of fact tho Shearers' Union is the strongest organisation of Labour in New Zealand, Avith the exception of the miners, and it can very well look after itself under freedom of contract, but many other classes of workers may not be so happily situated. In asking Parliament therefore to override the prejudgment of the Arbitration Court we are not seeking only for ourselves. Later on it may ho considered necessary, in order to protect the shearers I a/gainst future judicial coercion, ito bring urrwr. a special bill I providing for the wages and eon- ! ditions of shearers all over the Dominion, lin the same way as the Factories' Acts I provide for various classes of workers. This is a. matter for careful consideration in the future as it seems to us. but if : you consider it is a satisfactory solution lof the present dillkrulty, we are prepared jof course to assist you in passing such legislation as will ensure by Statute the rate and conditions we consider fair for the governing of shearing operations. Trusting you will render us all possible assistance in our attempt to withstand being coerced into a chastened submission, to quote Mr Justice Sim. -which is utterly intolerant to any body of freeborn and intelligent workers."