AUCKLAND EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8889, 27 May 1892, Page 5

AUCKLAND EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION.

MISS MORRISON ACCORDED AN INTERVIEW.

A meeting of the Auckland Employers' Association took place yesterday afternoon af the Harbour Board offices. The president (Mr. A. H. Nathan) presided. GAMBLING. A number of letters had been received by the secretary (Mr. F. G. Ewington) in respose to his circular re the question of gambling and its effects on tradespeople. The letters were read, and the further discussion of the question adjourned. Among the suggestions forwarded was one that employers should decline to pay for race holidays, and a second was to try and get the Government to stop nil pamphlets, notices, etc., relating to sweeps in New Zealand or in the Australian colonies.

THE CONDITION OP FEMALE WAGE - EARNERS' The executive committee was waited upon by Miss Morrison (of the Federated Tailoresses Union of New Zealand), accompanied by Miss Birley (secretary of the Auckland Tailoresses Union), and Mr. W. Jennings (secretary of the Auckland Liberal Association). Miss Morrison was received by the gentlemen standing, and The Chairman stated that he and the executive were very glad to meet her, and that as he understood she had come in respect to sweating practices, said to obtain in Auckland, he could assure her they, as an Association, knew nothing about them, and they would be strongly reprehended by all of their members. She could rely upon the assistance of the executive to secure what was fair and just between wage-payers and wage-earners. Miss Morrison thanked the Association for affording her the opportunity of laying her mission before them, for three or four years ago a bad state of tiling? had obtained in Dunedin in the manufacturing tailoring trade. Girls were worked 12 and 14 hours a-day on such wages as would hardly enable them to live, and was a mere miserable existence. They then formed a Tailoresses' Union, and with the influential assistance of Mr. Geo. Fenwick, managing director of the Otago Daily Times, Mr. S. Spragg, chief reporter of the same journal, who published his investigations of the sweating system, and of two or three merchants, they were enabled to create such a public feeling and healthy tone.among the employers as to extinguish I sweating in Duncdin, and the " lo£ " which they then formed has been adopted in Wellington and Christchureh, and had worked satisfactorily ever since. She felt certain it would work satisfactorily here. The "log," in every case, kept within the importation prices: and she was glad to admit that everything in connection with the shops was satisfactory ; but, as far as the factories were concerned, it was there where the grievance lay. Mr. Clark (of Clark and Sons) stated that the trade in Auckland differed from thatin the South, because tho latter had expert hands, the trade being older, but when they advertised for exports here they could not get them, and had to take on unskilled labour. They were teaching them their trade, and the disproportion of unskilled workers arose :n that way. As far as he was concerned he would be glad to pay the best wages possible in order to secure the best workpeople. If Miss Morrison wished that Association to recommend uniformity of payment throughout New Zealand, he for one would support such a movement. Mr. Fini.ayson (of Sargood, Ewen & Co.) said it seemed to him that there was no proof that any of the cases of hardship which Miss Morrison had instanced were true, and the proper course seemed to be that a committee composed of some members of that committee not interested with manufacturing trade should be appointed, with aco hi'nit tee from the manufacturers and Miss Morrison, to go into tho whole question, that committee to consist, of Messrs. Graves Aickin (vice-president), Arthur Wright (President Tailors' Association), Thomas Finlayson, A. H. Nathan (President Employers' Association), and F. G. Ewington. The question of freedom of contract arose, and Miss Morrison was asked whether the association could help her mission without compelling all tailoresses to join the union, and therefore destroy freedom of contract, to which Miss Morrison replied that she saw no help for women without organisation ; but, that men could much better protect themselves than women, bocsuse they had the parliamentary franchise and other methods of doing so. Tho fact that employers, themselves, had formed associations, _ evidenced the utility of such combinations, and she felt sure while these were properly conducted, that they were an advantage to employers and employes alike. In fact it was freely admitted, as many of the largest employers were among her best friends. The motion for the appointment of the committee was carried.

The President, on behalf of the executive, expressed himself as gratified at the decision arrived at, because the object of the Association was to settle such difficulties and disputes, as those before them, in an equitable and amicable manner, and thus prevent strikes.

With reference to General Booth's colonisation scheme the New Zealand War Cry says:— According to our latest advices from Home, the General was still undecided as to the best site for his first over-sea colony, Africa and New Zealand being apparently about equally well balanced. What more natural then that, in order to arrive at a right decision, the General should make inquiries of the shipping companies as to the cost of transport to New Zealand ? We are confident that only this initial stage of proceedings has yet been reached. Besides, it must not bo lost sight of that one of the principal planks of the programme for the over-sea colony was the preparation of tho land for the people — indeed, this was continually iusistod upon by the general in his speeches up and down the colony. Those people whose vivid imagination summons up a vision of the general gathering together 500 emigrants and shipping them off to New Zealand wi'hin the next three months, know little about the head of the Salvation Army, the very fact that no instructions have been received from the international headquarters in London to make preparation for the I 'option of _ the over-sea colonists here, precludes all idea of immediate action in the matter. Should, however, New Zealand be ultimately selected as the site of the general's over-sea colony, our friends and enemies may rest assured on this one point—that the whole business will be done in an above-board and straightforward manner, with the heirty co-opera-tion of the Government, the glad consent of the people, and the ringing approbation of the civilised world."