LABOR'S DEMANDS.

Feilding Star, 23 July 1907, Page 4

LABOR'S DEMANDS.

• [PEB PBBSS ABSOC-AIION.] Wellington, July 22. A deputation representing the conference of the Trades Councils of the orlony waited on the Hon. J .A. Millar to-night to place uoi'ore him a long list of resolutions adopted at the last conference which sat in Dunedin. Mr Cooper, President, said the de putation could claim to voice the opinions of organised labor throughout the oolony. They wished to distinct- j ly state that they whole-heartedly ■ supported the principle of concilii- j tion as embodied in the Conciliation and Arbitration* Act To some extent the Act ' had been discredited and rendered inoperative but thfault lay entirely with the Legislature. They desired that where employers employing a majority of v orkmen agreed to recommendations of the Conciliation Boards, theso recommendations should have the force of the award. Further all employers entering business after an award had been made, should bo at once made parties to it and Conciliation Board should have the power of amending their recommendations. As they wanted the present Act retained, they opposed the proposal to establisli wages boards. Fifty per cent, of the unions would not, through inability to get men to serve on the boards, be able to avail themselves of their'privileges. Tbe resolutions passed at the Dunedin Conference were then subn. itted to the Minister. The Hon. Mr Millar, in reply, said lin hoped during this or next week to circulate the Amending Conciliam Act among the Labor Union.?. His one object had been to encourage unionism and to enable facilities to be given to deal with all disputes in a prompt manner. He hoped the scheme he had devised would enable a breach to be dealt with in four days from its coming to the notice of the department. It was very easy to talk about a local currency, but when one got inside apd saw the intricacies "of finance, he saw it was different . Tbe proposal was not practicable unless the State bought all gold in the colony and sold it outside. He had tried to adjust the tariff so that no one industry would be sacrificed for another. The object of putting a specifi- duty per pair on boots was to do away with the importation of sweated goods. According to one resolution the Conference carried, it had constituted itself a political party, and then they asked Government to advance money for delegates to attend the Conference. If the Government granted it to one they would have to do it to all. The Government desired to continue the vote, but if the Conference was to be a political organisation they would simply be forced 10 say no.