WATERFRONT COMMISSION

Evening Star, Issue 23907, 10 June 1941, Page 3

WATERFRONT COMMISSION

PRODUCERS' REPRESENTATIVE SUGGESTED CONTROL NOW IN TWO HANDS (P.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, June 9. “ There is an uneasy feeling abroad that part at least of the trouble we are in with respect to the shipping of our produce has been due to the unsatisfactory handling of the produce on the waterfront,” said Mr W. A. Sheat at the annual conference of the South Taranaki branch of the Farmers’ Union at Hawera to-day. “ There is,” he added j “ still too much secrecy surrounding the conditions on the waterfront relating to handling of our produce. While the conditions relating to every other occupation are public property, no one is permitted to know the conditions enjoyed by that select aristocracy of labour, the waterside workers.

“ There exists on the waterfront today a condition of dictatorship,” Mr Sheat continued. “ The Waterfront Commission, consisting at the moment of Mr James Roberts and Mr R. E. Price, exercises complete control over the loading of ships. They fix the conditions, and no one outside the circle is allowed to know what those conditions are. All we know is that they are sufficiently high to involve a large element of war profiteering. “ I understand that a vacancy exists on the commission due to the retirement of the third member, Mr M'Leod,” Mr Sheat concluded, “ and 1 suggest that the importance of the business to all [producers warrants the appointment of a producers’ representative to that commission.”