INFORMATION GRATIS. TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 116, 13 November 1900, Page 7

INFORMATION GRATIS. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir — In case any stranger in this free country should be at a loss to know how things are worked here with regard to the Labour laws, unions, etc., and is desirous on his own account of starting business, we will say in the baking trade, let me tell him how things are worked. As soati as he has paid for his business and thinks he is lord -of oIT he owns, he gets an order from the Bakers'./lJnion that he must only work so many t hours per -neck, pay his men— foreman JB3 land fourteen loaves, second hand -JB2 10s and fourteen loaves, etc. He must keep no boys u,hlesa he employs two mea i ; a carter must not give a hand in the bakehouse. His men must not live on the premises ; hi ' must pay for all holidays, etc. This also applies to a country baker, who is worse oft', he, besides the usual expenses, having ,to pay exti*a freight, horses, and men to deliver in a scattered district. To see that he carries out these oi'ders means are taken, of which the following is a typical instance: — In the small hours of ,the night (11.30 p.m.)' two spies drove out, I believe from town, and put up at a hotel. Then about 2.30 a.m. they were ,seen to advance on the* suspected spot, cover of a shed ®n the suspected premises; then waited. Suspense ; then hark ! A scratch — a lights— we have him. They adlvance, tell you you have started an "hour too soon, then depart in great joy. They get 13s a day for this work. This happened on a Wednesday morning — a day which they took particular good care to come, knowing that the Inspector of Factories would also be waiting to take proceedings against you if the carts were not home by 1 o'clock noon on that day. After the spies' report the union has a meeting, and Sands you an order to attend some committee on a charge of breaking their award. They don't say what the charge is ; you get the notice the day the committee sits, and if it is impossible for you to attend they condemn you and 1 fix the fine as they like; in the case above cited they fined £5, the man having a chance to say *a word for himself, and he has to pay or they -will put him to more expense by taking it to the Arbitration Court. Besides this, about three Inspectors, Government and. local, are waiting to see if they can get a dig at you. In fact, the whole of your business is taken charge of for you, with the exception that you have to pay the bills yourself. But, as the Hon. R. J. Seddon says, this is a free country, for the working man especially. An ' employer must say nothing, of the union will order that ( hon. gentleman to give them fua'ther power to take his business away altogether if you offend them, and if he refuses they will pass him out. Perhaps he can't see it yet, but it is coming. The best ticket a candidate for the next Parliament can go on is to bill himself "I am for the unions — will give you anything you want!" In he will go.— l am, etc., FREEDOM.