TRADE UNION BALANCE-SHEETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 127, 1 June 1931, Page 14

TRADE UNION BALANCE-SHEETS.

I notice that the Hon. S. 0. Smith, Minister of Labour, in conjunction with the Welfare League, has attempted some cheap notoriety at the expense ot the trade unions of this country. I have been a member of a trade union for many years, and I not only receive a balance-sheet every year, hut one every half-year. As a matter of fact, I have quite a collection of balance-sheets of our organisation, and many others that I know supply each member of the organisation with a copy of the balancesheet every half-year and every twelve months, and I am quite willing to exchange any recent copies of our balance-sheet with the New Zealand Welfare League in return for any recent copies of theirs. I will also supply the Minister of Labour with copies of our balance-sheet, providing he supplies me with a copy of the balance-sheet of the Taranaki Rugby Union, and also a statement of accounts of the amount paid to this body from the Unemployment Fund, along with a general statement of accounts of the Unemployment Board. The exchange of balance-sheets can be made through your paper, if you are willing to act in this capacity, and I am quite prepared to allow our balancesheet to be published if the Minister of Labour and the Welfare League will also permit their balance-sheets to be published. In conclusion, I wish to point out that the balance-sheet of our union is audited by a certified accountant who is a Fellow of the New Zealand Association of Accountants, and, of course, it goes without saying that any balancesheet that you would receive from the Hon. S. G. Smith or the Welfare League would have to be certified by an equally competent person. OLD UNIONIST.