Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation. 3,500 Copies Daily. TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1910. THE SLAUGHTERMEN'S DISPUTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9115, Issue 9115, 11 January 1910, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation. 3,500 Copies Daily. TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1910. THE SLAUGHTERMEN'S DISPUTE.

Once more the course of a most important primary industry is seemingly about to be interrupted by labour troubles. The slaughtermen threaten to create a serious situation in connection with the meat freezing business, and neither side seems over sanguine that a settlement will easily be reached. The men are not displaying a very conciliatory spirit, and appear to have taken up the attitude that their terms must be adopted without amendment. They have chosen a time to proffer their requests that they know is a most critical period for the industry, when the employing companies can least afford to waste time bargaining. The action that has been taken appears also to be general throughout the Dominion, and is the result of the recent organisation of the various unions into a New Zealand Federation. Every big killing house in the Dominion has 1 been served with a demand for a uniform killing rate of 25s per 100 and an eight-hours day. At present some companies pay 23s for sheep killed for local consumption and export, and 18s and 20s per hundred for sheep and lambs killed for boiling down. The old agreement under which the men were working expired in June, and since then negotiations have been in progress for a new agreement, but matters appear now to have reached a crisis. The men have refused the good offices of the Conciliation Commissioner, who in the Wellington district has appointed two assessors to represent the employees. During the next day or two conferences will be held in most of the centres affected by the dispute, and their result will be eagerly awaited by the farming community. After all it is the farmers who stand to lose most by any interruption of the meat export trade. Their operations are regulated by the exigencies of the pastures, and they have in most cases so made their arrangements that delay in the disposal of stock will mean deterioration in value and ultimate heavy losses. If these labour troubles are to occur every year in defiance of the law which is supposed to prohibit the disorganisation of industry and the restraint of trade, the producers will have to consider the situation with a view to taking some precautionary measures. The whole question should be fought out in the off season. The slaughtermen are now organised into a powerful Federation, which is entitled to speak with authority for the men. The Federation should be required to give a specific undertaking that there will be no interruption of work when the season has once begun. Otherwise such steps will have to be taken as will obviate the possibility of a section of workers being able to hold up a great industry in its busiest period. '