WORK AT PORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1942, Page 8

WORK AT PORTS

CONTROL SYSTEM

IMPARTIAL INQUIRY SOUGHT

"In view of the statement issued to the Press by the Hon. P. C. Webb, Minister of Labour, announcing that the Government had requested the Waterfront Control Commission to review the whole operations of the waterfront and to report to the Government, it is desirable to present certain aspects of this important matter to the people of New Zealand," writes "Shipper." "Mr. Webb has rightly said, 'The waterfront is the bottle-neck of industry, and the utmost co-operation is absolutely essential for the speedy turn-round of shipping.'- It is because this is true that the prosperity of almost every industry .and the well-being of the whole of the people of the Dominion are dependent on the work on the waterfront. The fact that the Government has ordered an inquiry is in itself an admission that the complaints in the past and the severe criticism to which the Waterfront Control Commission has been subjected are not without foundation, but to suggest that the Waterfront Control Commission should investigate its own doings and report on them to the Minister is to provoke derision.

"The co-operative contract system is the child of the Waterfront Control Commission, whose judgment upon its own offspring cannot'be impartial. In its first report to Parliament, the Commission stated: 'The results of the working of the co-operative contract system .' . . will bear testimony to its efficiency.' This statement is not proved, and should be tested. Is it correct or is the system, as some assert, arbitrary, unbusinesslike, wasteful of man-power, costly in operation, little aid to industry and the war efforts of New Zealand?

"The figures published by the Wellington Harbour Board show that in Wellington there has not only been no improvement, but that rather there has been a'falling off in the rate of work. This does not support the Commission's claims as to the efficiency of its control. So far as the overseas ship owners are concerned the increase in cost is not borne by them. The Ministry of Transport of Great Britain has taken over the ships and meets all costs, the whole of which fall upon the British taxpayer. This, it is felt, is a matter of concern to everyone who would aid the Motherland at the present time. "The recent biennial conference of the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Union, after passing a resolution endorsing the co-operative contract system with a body of dissenting votes, carried a resolution calling upon the Government to take steps to place the whole of the work on the waterfronts of the Dominion under the control of the Waterside Workers' Union and the Waterfront Control Commission. Is the review ordered by the Government to be an examination of the work of the Commission or a preparatory step to give effect to the demand of the conference?

"In view of the importance of the •whole question to every section of the-people, and of the great issues involved, it is suggested the Government appoint a Royal Commission presided over by a Judge of the Supreme Court to inquire into the constitution, operation, and results of the Waterfront

Control Commission and into the demand to hand over the complete control of the traffic of all the ports in the Dominion to the Waterside Workers' Union and the Waterfront Control Commission. Such a Commission would give the Waterfront Control Commission an opportunity to put forward its claims and at the same time would command the confidence and support of the people."