SHEARING IN AUSTRALIA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 819, 17 May 1910, Page 8

SHEARING IN AUSTRALIA.

ABORTIVE CONFERENCE. The Australian Shearers' Award expires on Juno 12 next, and with a viewto clearing the way for a fresh award a conference of delegates from the pastoralists' associations and the Australian Workers' Union met in Melbourne on May -1. Mr. W: E. Abbott, of the New South Wales Pastoralists' Union, prosided. The representatives of the pastoralists announced at the outset that they wished to obtain reductions of the award rates. The exact amounts of the., reductions were not specified. The Workers' Union representatives asked for an increase in every rate of pay. The. shearing rate was to bo raised some shillings and privileges granted, to the men which were not included in the 1007 award. But it .was in the wages to be paid to shed Sands that tho greatest increases were suggested. These were to be in no case less-than 30s. for those over 18 years of age, while the general rate would work out at 355. a week, with in some districts a wage of £2 a week. These wages, as under the award, are for hands who are provided at the employer's cost with "good and sufficient rations cooked by a competent person, to be engaged and remunerated by tho employer." The valuo of being "found" is set down in the arbitration award at 18s. a week in most of Queensland, and at 13s. a week in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and tho Darling Downs, and part of the Maranon. In calculating the wages of shed hands, these amounts per week require to be added. .In addition to theso . requests for higher rates, the AVorkers' Union representatives proposed to include station hands under the terms of the agreement. They accordingly submitted ' a schedule of wages rates for them, too. These wero framed on the same scalo as the rates for shearers and shed hands. With the submission of theso proposals tho conference practically ended. . The representatives of tho pastoralists had not expected anything of the kind, and they declined to discuss the new proposals,'beyond declaring that they, were out of the question. In the words of the official statement issued to the press by the . conference,, "It was found that the parties' claims 'were so divergent that -there was no prospect of a satisfactory settlement being arrived at on-the principal questions at issue. It was therefore decided to adjourn tho conference sine die."The position at present is that tho arbitration award will expire on Juno 12, and thero is nothing ready to take its place. The Australian Workers' -Union will at once initiate proceedings in tho Federal Arbitration Court for anew award, but this cannot bo obtained for some time. In 1907 the hearing of the case occupied 22 days, and then a preliminary conference had cleared the ground of all but the vital issues. Shearing will be in full - progress in New South Wales by the end of July, and there will'be no award by then. Tho Workers' Union has instructed^its members to continue I work under the terms of. the 1907, award,, but to arrange that any. which may' run into the currency, of the new award shall bo subject to it. By agreement, similar instructions have been sent out by the pastoralists' associations to all their members. There -will therefore; bo no dislocation of the industry or interruption of work.