FREEZING WORKS DISPUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 125, 23 November 1926, Page 10

FREEZING WORKS DISPUTE

NO FURTHER INCREASE IN COST

CAN BE BORNE

APPEAL TO FARMERS.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) 1 NAPIER, 22nd November. In calling upon the farmers of the district to man the freezing works on Ist December, Mr. J. S. Jessep (chairman of the Wairoa Fanners' Freezing Company and vice-chairman of tho New Zealand Meat Producers' Board) made the following statement:— "The farmers of New Zealand are facing a serious crisis. No further increase in cost can be borne by the producers. The present demand for 10 per cent, increase made by the union leaders on behalf of tho freezing works employees is the direct result of the entirely unwarranted increase granted by the Arbitration Court to shearers and shed hands. This increase in the cost of shearing loaded the pastoral industry with a further £70,000 a year at a time when the industry can .least afford to bear it: It is a well-known fact that there was no general demand by shearers for an increase, and the same applies with equal force to the present demand put forward by union leaders iv connection with the freezing industry. The great majority of workers were perfectly satisfied. "Farmers by manning the works, as they have done with such signal success in Hawkes Bay, are serving notice to the country that no further increase in the cost of production can be tolerated. In fact, with the steadily dropping values of primary products, the cost must be reduced if production is to be maintained. "Whilst union leaders are demanding a 44-hour week, farmers are working nearer 84 hours per week, and their land is being steadily confiscated by the increasing cost of every article they purchase. The increasing cost is largely due to artificial restrictions such as Arbitration Court awards and Customs duty. Labour and industry other than farming is protected on all sides. The farmer alone must face the competition of the world. "Land has reached the limit, and more than the limit, of the burden it can carry. Unless present costs are lowered there will be five unemployed next winter for every one there was last, as all development work on farms and stations has stopped."