FARMERS' UNION DISCUSSION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 12 September 1921, Page 5

FARMERS' UNION DISCUSSION.

PALMERSTON N.; Sept. 9. At the meeting of the. Wellington. Provincial Executive of the, Farmers' i Union at Painierston North, yesterday, Mr. W. J. Poison (the. president), in. speaking of the Arbitration Court, said that the decision of. that tribunal, ' which had. granted shearers a crate ot" 26s 4d per hundred, .would, have, a, dis--astrous effect on pastoraiists. Slaughtermen were, asking 45s per hundred^, lor ' killing sheep. He condemned the state, of affaks, which had. permitted the freezing companies arid their employees ; to arrive, at some, mutual agreement, whereby, the extra cost. to. the companies, snould -be passed on to the producer. They were the. victims of a similar.arrangement between the shipowners and the. wharf, labourers,, and; it was, necessary that the producers should make an.emphatic protest against these, arrangements, to which the farmer, was no party, and endeavour, to; have, thft whole onus of fixing rates, etc.. thrown upon the Arbitration, Court, He. tcqhM ; not go so far as Mr. Biirreil, who had i said at Feilding that the Arbitration. ' Coutrt. had outlived its usefulness and should be abolished, but he. certainly thought the Court had gone mad, and that its decisions weret not on ; saae or sound; economic lines.. Something must be done tor bring them. back, ta their senses. If, the rate for freezing hands i was to be arranged for:, say, the next three years,, without > consulting the Court, the companies would be courting disaster. Freezing company repre- i sentatiyes had, attended; ifie last J Dominion conference of the Farmers' - Union, but the farmers'' representative had received very little satisfaction (Horn them. They admitted th£t they were quite prepared to compromise wfth the employers to some extent, and that 1 \ras what t&e> facrmers were up against. ' Mr. McLean, of B^etihi, drew aitent | tion to the fact that the decisiioiis off' the Arbitration Cosftrt were virtuajly the law of the land, and if they did not abide by the .C©OTt*a rulings they \sQuld be virtually striking. Because tfcirigs were im a bad way at the moment, ■'Inis was not th© time to assert t&a£ the C<wrt had outlived its Tisefulne^av They sliould abide loyally b y any ijpaer that the Court might mafte. Mr. O. P. Lynch, of PwSaparaumu, expressed the opinion t^ai the only solution to the labour pßoolem was to abolish preference to "w&ionists. Mr. A. Buchanan^ of Pabinerston Nortb. thought thai^ the old order of strikes and lock-ox»i^ was preferable to the local impositions of the Court/and said that; he ha<? consistently advocated the abolition of that body.—Dpmimoa cprrespon^at^