"TAKES THE BUN"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 32, 8 February 1932, Page 10

"TAKES THE BUN"

ARBITRATION ACT

FARMERS' OPPOSITION

LAW TO BE AMENDED

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

PALMERSTON N., This Day

Thfi Arbitration Act came in for a broadside 'j f criticism at Woodville on Saturday when farmers from the Southern Hawkes Bay and Bush districts bombarded the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. E. A. Kiin som) with a variety of grievances. Sev oral hundred representatives of the primaigr producers waited on the Minister, and. the request was made that the dairying industry should be exempted from the provisions of the Act. "3. think the Arbitration Act just takes the.- bun," said Mr: S. Mclntosh, ehairmaai of the Woodville Dairy Company, ■\vlno was the first speaker to refer to the master. "It costs the country millions a yea r, and is bolstering up one section of th.6: community to the disadvantage of the oUiers. Business men are loaded up with charges and pass them on to the dairying industry, which can't pass them any■n'liere." Arbitration awards, he proceeded, fixed tJ te hours of work and rates of pay for tO le men employed in dairy factories, and ieffected cheese quality. Prior to the Arbitration Act, good cheese was made—9o per cent, finest—now there was very little. .About 5 per cent, of the industry's troubles :'in regard to butter and cheese could be ;put on the farmer; the rest belonged else"where. "FIGHT IT TOOTH AND NAIL." I "We are going to fight this Arbitration Act tooth and nail," he told Mr. Ransom, I "and we want you to help us. The Act is really the cause of unemployment today; people can't pay the rates of pay fixed, and have to put their employees Off;." ]t was forty years since the Conciliation and Arbitration Court Act had been introduced, said Mr. J. G. Brechin (Pahiatua), and the only thing now left to the title was the "silly" in conciliation. Now that the Government was reviewing the Act, farmers submitted that no industry which could not pass on its added costs as a result of the operations of the Act should be placed under it. DAIRY FACTORIES BREAKING LAW. "Under present conditions," Mr. Brechin went on, "there is no dairy factory in New Zealand which is keeping within the four walla of the law. It is quite impossible for a dairy company, more especially a cheese factory, to keep within the operations of the Act without paying overtime, which they can't do." After quoting, figures relative to the cost of manufacturing, transport, and selling, Mr. Breehin concluded by saying that something would have to be done to pull down the industry's costs. Referring to the bobby calf industry, Mr. A. H. Hansen (Dannevirke) said that it took 65 to 70 out of every 100 to pay for the cost of killing. In a great measure, that showed the effect of the Arbitration Court Act on the farming community. A voice: "The butchers get £28 a week." %- ACT TO BE REVIEWED. It was proposed to review the working of the Act in the near future, said Mr. Kansom, replying. Undoubtedly the country wanted a reciuction in the costs of production more in line with the prices realised. A voice: "Will you work for the exemption of the dairy industry from the working of. the Act? That is what the meeting wants." Mr. Ransom: "I don't think that is a fair question to put to me as .Minister. It is quite improper for a Minister to make a statement on a policy matter before the Government has decided its policy. When I became Minister and was ignorant of what should and what should not be said, I spoke too openly, with the result that when I got back to Wellington I was asked if I was prepared to hand in my resignation. That taught me that I could not express my views before the Government had made a policy declaration on any inalter/' I will say, Mr. Ransom added, that the Government recognises that, as far as the Arbitration Act is concerned, it must be amended in the direction of not hampering any industry. IF THERE IS A STRIKE? Questioned as to what effect a general strike would have in the middle of the dairying season,- Mr. Kansom replied that the matter had been considered In moving a hearty vote of thanks to the Minister, Mr. Brechin said the meeting recognised that Mr. Ransom stood with one'hand tied behind his back, and sometimes wished that he was not a Minister of the Crown.