PREMIER AND CABINETMAKERS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 231, 3 September 1912, Page 5

PREMIER AND CABINETMAKERS.

TRADE’S OBJECTION TO PYRIDINE. AND TO AIR. JUSTICE SIM. Wellington, Sept. 2. The Wellington Furniture Workers Union waited on Mr. Massey, as Minister for Labour, to-day. Mr. Aforiarty, the principal speaker, spoke' for over an hour in opposi-> tion to the ruling of the Customs Department in ruling that it had no power to stop the use of pyridine in methylated spirits. The union objected to the use cf pyridine as it affected the eyes of the workers who used the spirit in polishing furniture. The Secretaary for Customs, in a letter, stated that the union should insist that methylated spirit without pyridine was supplied by employers for polishing. Mr. Moriarty said he considered that I was practically' an excitement to! strike by the Al mister in charge of | the Department. | Mr. Massey said that Air. Fisher has probably never seen the letter. Mr. Moriarity urged the Govern- ( ment to withdraw the regulations, as if the use of pyridine was note stepped the Furniture Workers! Federation would have to take c-x-j treme steps. I

Mr. Moriarity proceeded strongly’ to criticise the decision of the president of the Arbitration Court, who, he said, had gone back c«~prrviuus judgments and done more for the Federation cf Labour than all the rest of the workers in the country. He (Moriarity) declared that it was “up to those in power to remove him from the Bench.” Mr. Massey: You must not refer disrespectfully to a Judge of the Court. You must not ask me as Premier to “remove this man.”

Mr. Moriarity said he left the Premier to settle that in liis own way. He also criticised,, the Labour Department. Mr. Massey, in reply, said he thought the deputation had a grievance in regard to methylated spirits, and he would see whether it could l e put right, He added that he would have preferred to deal with the matter if Mr. Moriarity had not said what he did as a threat. Mr. Moriarity disclaimed making anv threat.