WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 February 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON NEWS

LABOUR AND THE TAR IF I

(Special to “ Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, January 2c

The workers in the sheltered or tarlff protected industries are bound to stand side-by-side with their employers and demand increased protection lor such industries as are menaced by foreign imports. Evidence of this is already forthcoming in the attitude adopted hy the Sawmill Workers’ l' 11 ion. There are about thirty thousand men employed in the industry. At the present time most of the sawmills are enjoying a prolonged holiday with the object of getting rid of accumulated stocks. The workers in the industry are apparently indifferent to what economic mischief they create so long as they are protected, and threaten to enlist the sympathies of the waterside workers and get them to hold up foreign timbers. The condition of the sawmilling industry is more or less typical of our other sheltered industries. and it limy not he out ol place to examine the position in some detail. The sawmill industry is in a parlous state because of the importation of foreign timbers, that is to say the local product cannot he sold at the price for which foreign timbers can be sold in the Dominion notwithstanding that they are transported long distances and are subject to several handlings, all of which add to the costs. If the demand of the industry for an increase in the tariff is granted then the prices of imported timbers must rise to the level of the ' local product or exceed same, more likely the latter. This means that building timber will he dearer than it is at present. It is admitted, and indeed it has been frequently emphasised hy the Labour Party that there is an abnormal shortage of dwellings in the Dominion. The State and the municipalities and even private concerns havo done something towards relieving the position, still the shortage of.dwellings is verv acute. AYill it help the community to make the cost of building dwellings dearer, as must inevitably he the case if the cost of building material like timber is to be raised? The effect of such increase must he to cheek building operations ; fewer houses will ho built because fewer people could afford to build, and with the contraction in building operations other sections of workers will he thrown out of work, so that in the effort to succour the thirty thousand sawmill hands conditions will he created that would probably throw out of employment f>o,ooo workers engaged in the building trade. Snell results would not trouble the collective conscience of the timber workers, for “ dog eat dog ” appeal's to he the rule with the workers. This was exemplified recently at the Feilding freezing works where 1?8 Unionist butchers demanded the dismissal ol 12 j butchers "ho engaged with the Com-j pany at the opening of the season, when tin l others refused service. Could Unionist savagery go further? The Unionist butchers were quite willing to take the bread from the twelve, indeed they demanded that it should be done] and were it not for the fact That there j was no preference to Unionists the; Company would not have been able to ■ take the stand it did. It refused to j comply with the request ol the Union-J ist butchers and further threatened to j dismiss them if there was any trouble, j When they found their own bread in 1 jeopardy t:Uey quickly came to heel, j It is more than probable that the men were driven to act as they did by out-;

side influence. Here we see the necessity of abolishing the vicious system of nrrferenee to unionists. To return to the sawmilling industry: ’l’fiis industry is not menaced so much hy the impi rtation of foreign timbers as hy its own economic conditions which appear to he fundamentally unsound. I neconomie wages and inefficient methods of operations and consequent waste are i ’idly responsible for the trouble. Tile industry must look for relief within itself, and not seek - to throw the burden oil the community. The costs of productions must be reduced, and several factors must ho applied to effect this. For instance, it may he suggested that a combination of units in the

several districts would tend to lesson costs mill eliminate a great deal of waste. There must be an adjustment of the wages scale which to-day is on an uneconomic basis. This of course will not be a simple matter, but if pro-, ference to unionists is abolished and the field opened to the man willing to worl; and ready to start, a great deal would he accomplished. The sheltered industries do not wish to face such troubles, hut want the Government to help them out at the expense of the community.