WAY TO PROSPERITY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1919, Page 5

WAY TO PROSPERITY

INDUSTRIAL OGOfcT’S ADVICE, CONTINUITY OF LABOUR. * The, advantage to all concerned of industrial harmony ang. continuity of pro- 1 duction was emphasised by Judge Edmunds during the hearing in the Industrial Court at Newcastle of an application by the Boilermakers* Association - for a variation of the award. ! In remaTking that there must be uni- | fomrity of working time at tbe steel works. Hip it appeared to him. that the steel" works could not.,be established unless there was continuity Of •> The successful establishment -of th© works would mean great industrial development for the whole of the district. “I think it is impossible to establish e works/* he said, “if they are to be. subjected to interruption by a section of employees from time Jo time. It would pe impracticable for any company attempt it, unless it can rely on continuity of labour to carry them on. Tbe interruption of the blast furnace for a day "would mean, if not total destruction, at least the carrying out oK considerable repairs, extending over many weeks, or perhaps months. The plans of the company, I believe, involve the building of five blast furnaces, and if they are fujly employed’it will mean five times the present output. There ax© about 4000 employees at the present time outside the clerical and official *taff. ; and the number ' is constantly growing... while the fortnightly. • paysheet. also obteide the official staff, is a fortnight. From .those figures you see the magnitude of the works and what it means for-the industrial development of the district. That" is, with One blast furnace in operation—and it is proposed to have five furnaces with probably three of them in continuous operation. *"l3h®res are also subsidiary industries springing up in connection with steel since Australia has been made to realise , for. the first time the necessity for getting its own supplies of these commodities. We know that the wheel and axle industry is advancing to its eetabJishmfent. , Probably, within ni lew months, wire-nail making and wiredrawing will be carried on, and! also the making of corrugated iron, and we bear lately that there may be the tinplate industry. Of course you are quite right in saying that employees should get fair and reasonable consideration in' , «ll,respects. I do not suppose that the growth of steel works here, with the unsatisfactory conditions of the .steelworkers. employed, say, in England, »« we,have* read of them, wpuld be anything but public mischief, but those conditions are not here, nor anything like. them. Tha conditions in which the employees work her© are, I think, on, the iwSoiej favourable. . I do pot think that any person interested in the future of Australia will say that th© establishment of, these .works is anything but an enormous, public advantage, and cer imply an enormous advantage to this district” - * ~