IMPORTANT PROPOSAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4846, 18 April 1918, Page 5

IMPORTANT PROPOSAL.

PROCEEDINGS OF INTEREST TO

UNIONISTS. An application of great importance to unions will come, before the Arbitration Court at Dunedin this -week. One of the first war measures placed on the New Zealand Statute Book was the Regulation of Trade and Commerce Act, section 25 of which reads as follows(1) At any time while His Majesty is at war with any foreign prince or State the Governor may, from time to time, by Order-in-Council, if satisfied that such, a course is neecssary in the public interest, modify or suspend, wholly or partially, and subject to such conditions as he thinks 'fit: (a) all or any of the provisions of any industrial award or industrial agreement under the Industrial Conciliation- and Arbitration Act, 1908, and its- amendments; (b)' all or any of the provisions of any other Act so far as such provisions take away or restrict the liberty of private contract in matters of trade, commerce, business, or employment.” The Government had delegated to the Arbitration Court the authority of hearing an application made by the employers in reference to the hoot operatives’ award. This award provides for the limitation of apprentices to the degree of one apprentice to three journeymen. The employers, in view of the general shortage of labor and special war conditions, are asking that the" number of apprentices which may be employed should he unlimited. The Union is strenuously opposing this move, and has requested Mr J. Hutchinson, of the Wellington Union, to appear on its behalf.