COMMENT BY MINISTER

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24372, 26 September 1944, Page 4

COMMENT BY MINISTER

“MEETING WOULD BE BREACH OP FAITH ” (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, September 25. “It is preposterous that the public should be inconvenienced and a public service held up in war time just because one section of an 'organisation disagrees with its national executive,’’ said the Minister of Railways (the Hon, R. Semple) to-day, when commenting on the proposal of the Canterbury branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants to hold a stop-work meeting on Thursday. “I appeal to the common sense of levelheaded railwaymen not to allow this to happen. Such action cannot be tolerated.’’ Mr Semple said railwaymen had been given a tribunal tq settle wages and conditions of work, and it was one of the most democratic in the country. Almost all its members, with the exception of the chairman, were railwaymen or former railwaymen. He hoped that it would straighten out all anomalies. He had got his colleagues in the Government to agree to the establishment of the tribunal, and had obtained the consent of Parliament because he knew there was a job to be done. The Minister explained that to shorten proceedings before the tribunal the executive of A.S.R.S. and the department had been trying to settle amicably as many of the points in dispute as possible before the claims went to the tribunal. This was on the same principle as conciliation council proceedings before claims for awards were placed before the Arbitration Court. “Surely internal troubles in the A.S.R.S. can be adjusted without penalising the general public, particularly in war time,” said Mr Semple. “If a stop-work meeting is held the men will only prejudice their own case, and break faith both with the public and with their own organisation. No cause succeeds more quickly than the one which has public sympathy. None is lost more easily than when the public become hostile. After all, the general public must be master of the situation, not any one section of it.” ‘ TRIBUNAL TO SIT ON OCTOBER 9 PRIORITY FOR A.S.R.S. CLAIMS STATEMENT BY NATIONAL PRESIDENT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, September 25. “The Canterbury branch of the A.S.R.S. is acting entirely on its own and without the authority of the society,” says a statement issued today by the president of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (Mr J. H. Perry) and the general secretary (Mr L. Mcllvride). “The wages and conditions of railwaymen have been the subject of almost constant conciliation discussions between the Railways Department and the society since August 22, with the hope that an amicable settlement can be reached and proceedings curtailed. “As a result of these discussions, many offers made by the department were acceptable, and by September 1 negotiations had reached such a stage that there seemed a likelihood of an amicable settlement, but in subsequent negotiations it was found that unanimity could not be reached on all points, and finally it was decided by the executive council that the whole of the A.S.R.S. case would have to be submitted to the recently-established tribunal. “Arrangements were later made for the tribunal to sit on Monday, October 9, when the A.S.R.S. wage claims will be given priority on the agenda. “These facts were well known to officials and members of the Canterbury branch, who had them fully explained by a member of the executive council present at Sunday’s meeting. In spite of this, the branch has taken upon itself the responsibility of independent action. “By so doing it is showing a complete disregard of the authority of the governing body—the executive council —and second, it is involving other railwaymen who have had no opportunity of expressing an opinion on the wisdom of this decision. “Now that the men’s case has been definitely set down for hearing, any precipitate action such as contemplated by the Canterbury branch is likely to prejudice rather than help our claims."

In an address at the University Club, Dunedin, recently, Dr. F. G. Soper, professor of chemistry at Otago University, dealt with the importance of research as an aid to industry, and emphasised the necessity for developing this type of research in New Zealand in the post-war period. The speaker reviewed some of the achievements of industrial research, and said that one of the reasons why Britain had lost its pre-eminence in production in the years between the two wars was undoubtedly because not enough money had been put back into research. Research expenditure a head in the United States had been more than three times that of Great Britain, but recent reports indicated that Britain intended to correct this disparity as rapidly as possible.