"GAGGING THE PRESS!" TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 25, 31 January 1899, Page 2

"GAGGING THE PRESS!" TO THE EDITOR.

Sir — Would you kindly grant me permission \'o reply to one of the statements contained 1 in an article in your issue of the 28th instunt. entitled "The Trades Council's Ire." Your article states that the Trades Council "pettishly desires to gag the press, so far as the exposure of the uses made of the so-called Conciliation. Board is concerned." So far from this being the case, the Trades Council courts the fullest pvablicity, not only as regards the use made of the unions of the Conciliation Board in settling disputes, but of the merits of the disputes as well. The Trades Council is fully satisfied of the justice of every dispute' brought the local unions before the Conciliation Board, and is of the opinion that tLys is amply borne out by the fact that in every case brought by them before the Board of Conciliation, or Court of Arbitration, substantial concessions have been granted to the workers, thus proving the justice of their claims. ■ Instead, therefore, of dealing in generalities, my Council would request your journal to point to any specific case, or cases, where an unfair use has been made of the Board by the locad unions. With regard to the resolution passed by the Trades Council, and which .appears to have provoked the ire of the Evening Post, my Council is of the opinion that it is based on justice and the BrAtish spirit of fairplay. It asks for no more than is conceded in British Courts of Law all the world over, namely, that while a case is sub judice its merits or demerits shall not be commented upon by newspapers. The statement that your paper has not commented on the merits of the issues between employers and employed in parti* cular cases is not borne out by your leading article on "Tne Mistakes of Trades Unions," which consisted mainly of an attack on the principle of the minimum wage, with special reference to the principle as applied to the moulding trade dispute then before the Board of Conciliation, and was written either with the intention of influencing public opinion on the question or the decision of the Board of Conciliation. My Council thinks the proper time for these remarks was after the Board had made its recommendations'. Your remarks about "certain professional unionist officials," and your desire for the "interests of the ordinary members of tile Trades Unions as well as of the general public" will doubtless be assessed at their proper value by the workei'S of this city. — I aw, etc., Robert E. Vaney, Secretary Wellington Trades Council. Wellington, 30th January, 1899.