MINISTERS, JOURNEYS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1937, Page 6

MINISTERS , JOURNEYS

THE LABOUR CONFERENCE

(To the Editor.) Your correspondent "Grey Lynn" some what unfairly criticises the? Government f,, r sending its Minister <it' labour, tin- lluti. M. 'J'. Armstrong, to represent it at the Jnternational Lalwiir Conference at (icricva. i-'or many years past many other countries have been represented l>v tlieir Ministers of Lal>o\ir and Eiiiployineiit, and this i* the first time that New Zealand lias shown a projier rccogriition of the importance of this conference liv sending its own Minister of labour. year the Brrtisli Government was represented by Mr. Ernest Brown, British Minister of Labour, and he made a remarkable speerli opposing the international adoption of lhc 40-hour week. "We are not willing to npj.lithe principle of the 40-liour week, - ' he said, "because the compulsory sharing of work is not acceptable in Great Britain." That, of course, does not represent the New Zealand Government's attitude, nor that of some other countries, and since tliis Government has pioneered the 40-hour week in the Dominions, and much other industrial legislation, it is quite fitting that it should l>e represented liv a responsible Minister who can speak authoritatively on Its behalf and give his whole firjn to this very important conference. H.C.S.