CARPENTERS AND JOINERS

Evening Star, Issue 16086, 11 April 1916, Page 1

CARPENTERS AND JOINERS

MR JOffitf DIAS. THE DELEGATE-TO ENGLAND, IN DTTNEDIN TO-DAY. Tim morning, thanks to an introduction by Mr B. Keflett, a member of our staff met and had a conversation with Mr John Dias, the delegate elected by Amtealift and Now Zealand to represent them at the general conference of the Amalgamated Bocfety of Carpenters and Joiners, to bo held in Manchester in June. The society itsolf dates back fjrom. tho days of the London guilds, when meetings had to be held in secret. It has 93,000 members, in I,lßo' branehos distributed throughout the English-speaking world. Since the foundation of the society under its present constitution the sum of 4| millions sterling has been paid out in benefits. The general conference ia held every six years for the purpose of revising the constitution. Revisions now projected are thus referred to by Mr Dias t For o, great number of years we have been endeavoring to make a constitution whioh shall be suitable to all parts of tho world, and wo find that we cannot do it. It it impossible for the same reason as it would be impossible for the Old Country to make all the laws to suit all the Dominions. The broad principles are laid down Imperially, and each State is left to devise the laws ti suit itself. So with our society. Wo are determined now, whilst retaining our international organisation, to alter our constitution so as to provide for the fullest form of iocal autonomy, so that each district can work out its industrial destiny in its own way. We shall safeguard tho interests of local .societies by making provision for a uniform system of benefits and clearances, so that a man shifting from one place to another will not be prejudiced; but apart from that provision we propose to give full autonomy to each district. Under the constitution as now proposed it will be quite possible for Franco or some of the other Continental nations to become a part and parcel of the organisation. Mr Dias was born in Victoria, but he has worked in every State of Australia, and has never been out of office except for the five years when he went to Paraguay. Ho has spent a month in New Zealand, visiting Auckland, Napier. WelChristchurch, Dunedin. and Invercargill, and leaves bv the Niagara on the 18th inst. for the Old Country. Asked about his impressions of New Zealand, Mr Dias said : It has been quite a revelation to me in regard to the apparent prosperity of the whole of tho people of New Zealand—quito a contrast, so far as the workers are concerned, with the conditions that prevail in Australia, at the present time. The only place where I have found members of our society unemployed is Dunedin. Everywhere else they are fully employ efl. May J. add that I have found out other things as well. Tt has come homo to me somewhat forcibly that in New Zealand I you have no union 'sentiment, as we understand it in Australia, as compared with Australia and other countries. I consider that the Arbitration Act that vou have here is practically killing unionism as wp knew R- in the past, to the detriment of all labor organisation. Tho preference clause has simply turned, our organisation into a mere registration bureau for work. Further, one of the things that I find hampering our society is the fact that I there is no particular definition of what constitutes a unionist. A man pavs an entrance fee into a union, and then v.e have to find organisers to collect his union fees. The Act should state that for its purposes a unionist is a financial member of a union, a member not more than six weeks in arrears. | To sum up what is in my mind, it seems to me that the Arbitration Act is practically a. means of preventing big unions from being formed, and also a means of preventing large and powerful organisations from being maintained, inasmuch as it provides that each industrial district must register its own rules, and those rules are not recognised in New Zealand as a whole. The result of the whole situation is that, as compared with Australia, vou have absolute political apathv on "the part of the workers. In Australia others as well as mvself have shown that if the workers wish to work out their own political salvation they must set up efficient machinery for the purpose. It is no use voting for a. Liberal or a good Conservative. "The same doctrine applies to New Zealand, must make a. start, as we have in Austral in, by creating some machinery by which you can have a. Labor party of your own. \\ e in Australia havo prospered, on those lines under the most disadvantageous circumstances—in fact, we have fed and thrived on difficulties. I am particularly struck with the Press of New Zealand. Tu every town, wherever you go, you find decent newspapers, very fair, l.u Victoria and New South Wales we have the bic metropolitan papers dominating the. whole position ; the country papers are puny and hand-to-mouth rags. Miy 1 also give you the opinion that, your decentralisation in New Zealand seems to me to be perfect. In every centre you have an efficient tram service and a good water supplv. and generally a self-contained life of its own. This' is very different from what we have in Australia, and very much better, and, apart from your climate and vour natural resources, this splitting up of the population and having it all over the land, instead of finding everybody gfavitating to a Melbourne or a Svdnev. must be conducive to prosperity and "a healthv social