ALLEGED WHOLESALE PERJURY A STRONG STATEMENT. EFFICIENCY OF LABOUR. [By Telegraph.—Special to The Post.]

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 106, 31 October 1908, Page 9

ALLEGED WHOLESALE PERJURY A STRONG STATEMENT. EFFICIENCY OF LABOUR. [By Telegraph. — Special to The Post.]

DUNEDIN, Thjs Day. Most of the address of the president of the Otago Employers' Association, at tho annual meeting yesterday, had reference to the Arbitration Act. Inter alia, Mr. Thomson observed :—"I: — "I venture to say that there is more perjury indulged in in the Arbitration Court in a month than in the Supreme Court in a year. You may think this a very strong statement, but it can be proved, and the worst feature of it is that it is not individual perjury, but combined perjury, carefully prepared beforehand. A mere statement like this is not of much value, unless it can be supported by facts. Let me give you a quite recent one." Then he quoted the Taratu case, which he said supported his statement. In that case, the court decided against the men, and twenty-seven of them went out. "Since then, some have thought better of it, and returned, and what do you think has been the result?" asked the speaker. "Why, one of the most vehement upholders of the eight boxes a day theory has actually turned out fourteen boxes of coal and two of slack in a day. I can give an instance of a union secretary schooling his witnesses in a country hotel where the partitions were very thin, deliberately instructing them to swear as facts wiat he and they knew were not so. Those who have much knowledge of the Arbitration Court know how almost impossible it is to get evidence that will assist it to form a really accurate opinion of the conditions prevailing. Take the Bricklayers' Union : Well, they have issued instructions to their members that no man is to lay more than 400 bricks a day. It is well known that 1000 bricks a day can be laid with ease. Here we have a highly paid trade refusing to do an honest day's work. These are not isolated cases, but are typical of what prevails throughout the Dominion, and I think the effect upon the young people who canot fail to become cognisant of them at an early age must be distinctly, and, I fear, permanently bad, and will certainly react detrimentally on the community. Employers estimate the falling off in all-round efficiency in labour from this cause at from 15 to 20 per cent. duriDg the last recadej'