ORIENTALS IN CANADA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19512, 16 December 1926, Page 16

ORIENTALS IN CANADA.

WMW»»W ■■gjjgaw.WH inwww ■» TIMBER WORKERS' PAY. THE NEW MINIMUM WAGE. [feoji oro owjr.. coeeiesppnpest.J ! VANCOUVER, Nov. 12. Tii© employment- of. Orientate is likely to bis .agiiin a subject for the consideration of the Privy Council,, on tjhe new minimum wage law, as it was on similar legislation three yearn up, with possibly the result that it may be declared invalid, as was the cage with Jifce previous statute. The operators in *the lumber "industry, which employs a large number of Orientals at a wage of about Is an hour, have signified thei;r intention of appealing against the new law, under which a minimum of Is l3d per hour has been set, with the expressed of making conditions in the lumber industry such as may attjract white worker*;. The Act came into force on November 1, and one lumber company committed a technical breach by neglecting; to post at, tlm company's plant order:; issued by the Gov-* ernment, through the Minimum Wage Board, regarding . the. Eiew. ( wage scale. Acquainted with the Intention to appeal, the magistrate imposed a nominal fine of £2. Counsel for the defence, Mr. Farris, K.C., stated that it, had been decided by the Lumber Association that a test be made, and the defendant company had therefore wilfully refrained from posting the notices. The defence did not question thei validity of the Act, but whether the board! had done right to discriminate in the matter of occupations. He pointed out that the defence contended that the action of the board in singling out the lumber industry was inequitable. The Crown Prosecutor pointed out that the Act showed there could not he a minimum wage in some eases by mentioning exemptions from the Act, arid that the same minimum could not apply to all occupations. The order concerning the lumber industry was the first Step toward setting up wage scales. There are 40.000 workers in the lumber industry in British Columbia. It is estimated that this number includes about 8000 Oriental.