THE BOOT TRADE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7386, 12 February 1902, Page 2

THE BOOT TRADE.

INVESTIGATIONS BY INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION.

(N.Z. Times.)

Tbe Wellington Industrial Association having recently appointed a committee to investigate the oauses of the decline in the New Zealand boot trade, this committee, after obtaining information on the subject from various parts of the colony, reported as follows at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Association :

Your committee has to report that it has sent circulars to the leading boot manufacturers in New Zealand, and has received replies from a number of them. These replies have been considered together, and the various points dealt with as follows : —

Question : In your opinion, have the large manufacturing firms sufficiently up-to-date machinery as compared with foreign competitors ?

Reply: Yes.

Do you know if the output per machine in New Zealand is the same or less than machines of similar class elsewhere ?

Reply: Less.

Do you know if longer hours are worked elsewhere than in New Zealand ; that is, places which compete with the manufacturers here ?

Reply : Yes.'

If the output of machines in the boottrade is less here in the same number of hours compared to that of similar machines elsewhere, to what cause do you ascribe it? Can you make any suggestion as to remedy ?

Reply: As to cause— (l) Introduction of labour-saving machinery ; (2) change from piecework to weekly wages ; (3) the great variety of classes of boots produced by each manufacturer ; (4) workmen not sufficiently expert through having to handle so many classes ; (5) men do not turn out as muoh as they could if they chose; (6) Arbitration Court of Award has reduced the individual ambition of the workman ; (7) expenses increased because a lot of material is now useless, owing to the restrictions in employment of young people ; (8) restrictions of Court award and Factory Act.

Reply : As to remedy— (l) That the Court of Arbitration should not include in its award anything whioh controls or attempts to regulate methods of production, but should confine itself practically to minimum wages and hours of labour; (2) amendment of Factory Act; (3) abolition of apprenticeship; (4) the workmen have the remedy largely in their own hands to so work the machines as to supply a good article at a fair price.

Your committee sent a circular to the New Zealand Federated Boot Trade Association of Workers, and has received a reply in which the council of that body attributes the reduction of workers in the trade to the introduction of machinery and the substitution of weekly wages for piecework. This leads the council to believe that the position is therby improved for the manufacturer.

Your committee is of opinion that though the trade does undoubtedly show a decrease in the number of workers employed, that is not in itself a cause of alarm. The present position is better for both masters and men. The question of the future of the trade lies in the methods of production being 'left free and untrammelled by awards of the Court of Arbitration, and in the workers realising that if they are to keep their trade going they must get the full complement of work out of their machines, and thus successfully fight the American competition.