A NEW DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 22, 27 January 1928, Page 9

A NEW DAY.

EMPLOYERS AND WORKERS. THE DOMINION CONFERENCE COMMITTEEMEN CALLED SOUTH.

A call to take part in the work of the committee which is to prepare for the big industrial conference in April has been received by Mr. M. J. Savage. M.P., from the Hon. C. J. Anderson, Minister of Labour. The telegram states that the meeting will be held in Wellington on Wednesday forenoon next. When the committee to prepare the agenda paper and arrange the preliminaries was nominated by the Prime Minister during the last session of Parliament, Messrs. Savage and Eraser were named as the representatives of the Labour party. "I take it that this conference between representatives of the employers and of labour," said Mr. Savage to an interviewer this morning, "will not only discuss matters relating to the system of conciliation and arbitration, but will likewise consider the whole of the relationships between capital and labour in this Dominion."

In expressing the hope that much good would result from the conference— and he could conceive of nothing but good coming from it —Mr. Savage said that the movement was somewhat similar to that which was taking place in Britain. For years sane labour had been fighting the extremists and at the Trade Unions Congress in Edinburgh last year there had been a straight-out declaration on these lines. Now the representatives of organised labour were responding to the invitation to meet representatives of capital in conference for the betterment of industrial relationships.

"To me," said Mr. Savage, "it looks as though both in Britain and in New Zealand a new day of understanding is dawning. The time has gone by when men are content for their labour to be bought from day to day. The workers are progressing and I believe that these conferences are in the direction of giving labour a greater say in the government of industrv."

Replying to a question, Mr. Savage said that organised labour in the Dominion was responding heartily to the proposal to take part in a conference with representative employers, and delegates from various unions were now preparing for the labour conference to be held in Wellington on February 9. This was by way of arranging the preliminaries and when the time for the Dominion conference arrived he believed that the representatives of labour would go forward in the spirit of doing all in their power in the interests of the industrial relationships of New Zealand.