LABOUR DELEGATES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12479, 19 April 1901, Page 2

LABOUR DELEGATES.

THE CANTERBXXRY REIPRESKNTA--1 TIVES AT ffHE DtHSTEDiM CONJ - FEKEfNCE. THE WORK DONE. A GENERAL REVIEW. Messrs P. Y. Wilson, H. R. Rusbridge and J. N. Young, delegates from Canterbury to the Trades and Labour Conference held at Dunedin recently, have returned to Clmstohuroh, and last evening tiey expressed to a reporter of the "Lyttelton Times" their views on the general work o'f the Conference. THE CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION act. They said that the interest at the Conference centred round tiso proposals to amend the Conciliation and 1 Arbitration Act. In the first place, it was decided to ask that an inspector should be appointed to see that the, awards of the Arbitration Court were properly enfotced. There was a unanimous feeling in this direction, as all the delegates felt that some officer, not'a Trade Union., should be responsible for the awards 'being' attended to. If the Supreme Court gave a decision, there were officers to see that the judgments were carried into effect, and it should! be the same tin regard to the Arbitration Court. The,Conference also asked that the Act should be made applicable to Government employees, bringing them ini'a line with other workers in the colony. The represenitatives of both sides, taey said, should be elected by the representative bodies, the Trades and Labour Council and the Employers' Association, instead of being nominated by the Government. Another ipoint on which the Conference was unanimous was that a Union should be able to decide wbetfher it will take a case to Court by a majority at a meeting, instead of by a majority of the whole Union, provided that all members (have had an opportunity to asoertain that the case •would come 'before the meeting.. THE OLD AGE PENSIONS. With regard to the Old Age Pension scheme, the unanimous- feeling was that the provision should be raised to 10s a week, and that it should be available to persons .quite irrespective of their income. The argument was that if a person was in good circumstances the pension oouldi be recouped in the shape of claims on the estate after death. STATE COAL JUNES. The idea that the Government should start a coal mine was received with great approbation. The conference was very well pleased with the Premier's announcement in this direction, as it held that amy concern of that nature run by the Government on. business-like lines, would be for the good of the workers. THE FACTORIES ACT. " • Several amendments were proposed to the Factories Act. It was stated that in all factories dining-rooms should be provided for men'as well as for women and girls, and that the regulation lime of forty-four hours a week should apply to all workers in factories. THE REPRESENTATION ACT. It was suggested that the Representation Act should be amended so as to strike out the 28£ per cent increase of population in suburban districts,;, The feeling,, was that such districts had an advantage over the cities at present. ' VACANCIES IN THE GOVERNMENT , SERVICE. An important proposal adopted by the conference was that all vacancies in all' de-, partments of the Government service should be filled by ballot The candidates for any josrifcion, should first of all undergo an examination, and those who passed ifc should bo ballofcted for by tie person who, under the,.present circumstances, would make the /appointment. There-should be no age limit," no preference by reason of priority, and no waiting until a man's turn cam© round. CRITICISMS OF THE CONFERENCE. The Canterbury delegates referred at some length to the criticisms which have been made on the work of the Conference In. Times," on April 10, it was stated, that theV proposal to multiply inspectors under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act seemed to be an unwise measure. The delegates fiaid that they did not propose to increase the, number of inspectors in the proposal to enforce the awards of the Arbitration Court. All they asked was that some inspector should be appointed, and for all they cared he might be the Secretary for Labour, as the "Times" suggested.

The, delegates indignantly denied the suggestion that the workers were not willing to meet the employers. All along, they said, it had been the employers who had refused to conciliate.. The employers were always approached before the workers took action in regard to trade disputes. Strong exception was taken to t!he words, "and the workers have met the employers /very unwillingly." "We strongly object to that," said all three delegates. In regard to the statement in the "Lyttelton Times" that the fact of &a employees wages book being* open for inspection would carry interference too far, the delegates said that the rate of wages that should be gadd is known, because it is fiied by the Court. Therefore, an inspection by some person appointed by a Union would mot be divulging privatia matters. Besides this, they said, if an employer was acting in'conformity -with me Court's award, he would lave no objection to showing his wages-book. At pre.Wfc there was nothing to prevent a dishchesb employer from working .on the feajrs of a worker, and inducing him or,her to take a lower wage than prescribed) "We fail to see how;'we are 'riding the Arbitration Act to dearth,' " said! the delegates. "The 'Times' gave a shocking example of a case at BethnaH Green, and said it showed from what' New Zealand had escaped. Well, our desire is to maintain the advantage the colony has obtained. We can take a case to the Arbitration Court o?rly once. The decision is given, a»d ive are bound by it. How, then, can we be accused of riding the Act to death? We are grateful for the conditions of labour here; we have said so repeatedly j but let us preserve them." The delegates continued that they had been accused dn some newspapers of having a lengthy order-paper, and rushing motions through without proper consideration. With regard to the first charge, they said that if the Government had been sincere in attempting to pass labour legislation through Parliament, the Order •Paper would not have been nearly so long. Year after year the same measures came before the Conference, and year after year the same motions were-carried. As to the second charge, those who attended the Conference were delegates from Trades and Labour Councils, which in their turn represented the Unions, the many motions which came up had been discussed by the delegates over and over again. COLONEL PITT'S STATEMENT. The delegates were asked what they thought of the remarks of Colonel Pitt, chairman of the Federation Commission, cabled from Sydney' yesterday. He said that the impression of the labour people in New Zealand that the hours are longer and the wages lower in Australia than in New Zealand was not borne out by his experience, and added that on the whole the labour conditions there were much the same as in New Zealand, except that in Australia the conditions were settled voluntarily, but/in New Zealand by statute law. The delegates said that they could net conceive how Colonel Pitt could arrive at such a conclusion, and they did not believe that he was correct. As to the settlement of conditions, they could settle them here voluntarily, if they liked, but there was no stability and no system in that It was much better to have the thing done by law, to which no objection could bei taken if the parties-were in earnest.- -If

they were not in eam«st, of course they could break an agreement at any time under the voluntary system.