Australian Letter N.S.W. Annual Leave May Be Three Weeks

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28478, 7 January 1958, Page 12

Australian Letter N.S.W. Annual Leave May Be Three Weeks

[Australian Correspondent N.Z.P.A.]

SYDNEY, January 5.

Reports that the New South Wales Prem/er, Mr J. J. Cahill, will early this year introduce compulsory three weeks’ annual leave for all employees on State awards has alarmed employers. The minimum annual leave at present for employees under both State and Federal awards is a fortnight. Trade unipn leaders have been campaigning for an extra week’s leave for some time, and it is freely reported that the Government will legislate soon to meet union demands.

Employers are alarmed at the proposal because it will add substantially to production costs and to the cost of living. The secretary of the Employers’ Federation of New South Wales, Mr P. J. Self, said three weeks’ annual paid leave would cost New South Wales at least £lO million a year.

Mr Self said three weeks’ annual leave would jeopardise full employment because .employers would be forced to cut staffs to meet competition and to reduce costs. He said that this year would be difficult because Australia’s industrial expansion did not seem to be keeping pace with the increase in the number available for work.

All the newspapers* editorial comment attacked the longer holidays proposal, and went to lengths to point out the effects of it on the State’s economy. The “Sydney Sun” stressed that manufacturers are already worried about the competition they are facing from cheaplyproduced Japanese goods. The “Daily Telegraph” said Australia is facing a difficult year with the wool cheque down and the worst reactions of the drought still to be met. “At such a time it must seem the height of irresponsibility to force on to the national economy something which will inevitably increase the cost of production and prices generally,” it said.

The “Sydney Morning Herald” said “the economics of the proposal are thoroughly bad.” It said that the Government, in spite of the fact that an election is coming up in about a year’s time, should take a firm stand against this kind of union “blackmail.” The New South Wales Cabinet has already approved three weeks’ leave for all people working tor the Government. It did so early in December, but did not announce the cost to consolidated revenue.

* * * Dollar Racket

A racket in forged and genuine United States currency has been uncovered in Sydney and prosecutions are pending against about a dozen persons. Officials of the Commonwealth Bank and the Commonwealth Investigation Service said the racket was uncovered some months ago and the Federal Crown law authorities would soon issue summonses under the Banking Act. It is understood that among the persons involved are a wealthy retired company director and two well-known real estate agents. The first lead the Common-

wealth Investigation Service obtained in its investigations came from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. F. 8.1. men had checked on a Sydney man who arived in San Francisco. He had bought watches in the West Indies and had paid for them with 50-dollar notes which were forgeries. The investigation was flashed back to Sydney. It is understood that the investigations then revealed that American seamen were smuggling in genuine and forged United States notes, mostly of 20 and 50 dollar denominations. Customs officers have been alerted and asked to screen closely ships reaching Australian ports with American crews. It is not yet known how many of the forged dollars have been sold. *** . . Airport Closed Loud lamentations followed the closing of Sydney’s £6,000,000 “all-weather” airport one night this week—because an inch of rain fell. The rain made the runways at Mascot Airport slippery and unsafe for landings. A civil aviation official explained that during a long dry spell, such as Sydney has had, the pores of bitumen open up and get filled with oil, sand and other substances. A light fall of rain makes the surfaces very slippery. A heavy fall is needed to wash the substances away. Light rain on the night in question made the runways slippery. Twelve airliners were diverted to other airports. They included a Super Constellation from London, which flew on to the western township of Dubbo, and a T.E.A.L. DC-6 from Auckland, which landed at Melbourne. Added to the diversion costs to the airlines was the inconvenience caused to hundreds of passengers. At Dubbo, 260 miles from Sydney, passengers and crews from inter-State airliners were jammed into a small shed for up to seven hours waiting to take off again. Most were forced to squat on the floor or stand. There was no food available. Both international and interstate passengers had some highly critical things to say about the

“all-weather” airport when they finally arrived back in Sydney.

¥ * * 1957 Dry Year

Two inches of rain in Sydney at the end of the year was not sufficient to enable the Water Board to lift restrictions on the use of water by householders and market gardeners. It was enough, however, to induce the board to lift the total ban on the lighting of fires in the open. So, while the suburban homeowner is still compelled to carry buckets of water to keep his plants and vegetables alive, he is having a “field day” in the disposal of garden refuse. On the day after the ban was lifted a smoke haze covered every suburb. Fires in streets and backyards created a heavy pall of smoke over Sydney.

Just before the lifting of the ban a 64-year r old man was fined £3O for lighting a fire to boil a billy in his backyard in the suburb of Mascot.

Sydney’s rainfall in 1957 was the third lowest since 1859. It had a little more than 25 inches. Sydney’s average yearly rainfall is 47.40 inches. This year’s total sunshine in Sydney was the highest for five years.

¥ ¥ ¥ Road Deaths Less

One of the happiest features of the Christmas-New Year holiday period in New South Wales was the decrease in the death rate from road accidents. From Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day 15 persons were killed, compared with 30 last year. This is the first time for years that the upward cycle of the road toll has been halted. An intense road safety propaganda “blitz” apparently had results. New South Wales had 50 fewer road deaths in 1957 than in the previous year. This is regarded as being very encouraging by traffic authorities, who point out that there are 60,000 more vehicles on the road than a year ago. Road deaths in 1957 numbered 744. ¥ ¥ ¥ Caterpillars

Organised spraying from the air and on the ground halted a caterpillar invasion in southern parts of Victoria. Millions of “army worm” caterpillars died from the effects of spraying. The caterpillars menaced lawns, gardens and flower-beds in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and in Gippsland. Where farmers 'were slow to carry out spraying, hundreds of acres were damaged.