SHOPS AND OFFICES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5730, 27 October 1905, Page 5

SHOPS AND OFFICES.

TROUBLE OVER THE BILL. DIFFERENCES N THE LEGISLATURE. Trouble arose over* the Shops and Offices Bill last night between the House of Representatives and the Legislative Council. Amendments made by the latter branch of tho Legislature had been disagreed with by tho Lower House, and a conference was held. After nearly an hour and a half of consultation, the conference could come to no agreement, and reported go to their Houses. Then the trouble started. The managers representing the Legislative Council were tho Hons Messrs Pitt, Jones, Jenkinson, Wigram, T. Kelly, and Thompson, and those representing tho House were Messrs Seddon, Massey, Barber, Arnold, Fowlds, and Lewis, As soon as the House asked for another conference, tho Hon Mr Pitt moved that the managers to represent tho Council should be the Hons Messrs Pitt. Macdonald, Trask, and Harris. Tho Hon Mr Rigg immediately objected that there were no labour representatives upon the new committee —it was a back-down committee. It was tho first time sines 1893 that such an omission had been made, and it was significant from the fact t hat tho.se representing labour in the Council had an opinion of their own in respect to the views they advocated and a dignity of their own greater than some other members of the Council. Was there one of the proposed managers who would stand firm if tho influence of the Government was brought to hear upon them to abandon the bill as it passed through tho Council? There was not one who would stand up for five minutes against the opposition of the Government. Tho Hon Mr Macdonald: Nonsense! Tho Hon Mr Rigg: I say there is not one that will stand firm. Tho proposal now was to go back upon a deliberate attitude taken np by the Council —an attitude that had been favourably received by the country. The two strong men of the first conference had been carefully left off the second list, and he could only_ read it as an attempt to abandon an important principle of the bill. It was putting the Council in a humiliating position, yet ho was not surprised. He moved, as an apiendment, that the name of the Hon Mr Macdonald be struck off the list and tho name of the Hon Mr Rigg bo inserted, that the name of the Hon Mr Trask be struck off and the name of tho Hon Mr Jonkinson be inserted, that the name of the Hon Mr Harris be struck off and tho name of the Hon Mr Jones inserted, and that the name of the Hon Mr Pitt be struck off and tlio name of the Hon Colonel Feldwick bo inserted.

The Hon Mr Jones, who was one of the original managers, said that the trouble at the conference had been in regard to the clause' which limits, the working of assistants -after 6 o'clock p.ra. or 6.30 o’clock p.ra. An agreement had been arrived at to allow country assistants to be employed until 8 p.ra. Then a surprise was sprung upon the conference in the direction of a suggestion to work the city assistants until 7 p.m. He would bo no party to it, and he would not allow himself to be nominated again as a manager under the circumstances. His desire was to lessen the hours of labour instead of to increase them, or niake them later. The Hon Mr Pitt said it seemed to him that, whenever the Hon Mr Eigg did not get his way he indulged in remarks that were neither courteous nor convincing. There was no backing down. Ho w r anted to save a bill that was a credit to the Council. Tho Hon Mr Jenkinson; Well, stick to it. The Hon Mr Pitt: By sticking to it wo shall lose it. . An hon member: Well, lose it. Tho Hon Mr Pitt : With the old set of managers there is no chance of an agneement. In the new managers there are two members of the Labour Bills. Committee. He pointed out that under the bill outside the bqroughs assistants could be worked until any hour, as long as tho fifty-two-hcur limit was observed, hut under the new suggestion they could he worked only until 7 p.m. That would be a great gain. The Hon Mr Macdonald regretted the personal and nasty “twang” of the Hon Mr Bigg's remarks; to say that the proposed managers were a back-down set savoured of insult. Ho (tho Hon Mr Macdonald) was the last man in the Council who could bo accused of being spineless in the face of the Government. Ho was not spineless on any public question. The Hon Mr Bigg had failed to get his way on the Labour Bills Committee, and had been responsible for tho trouble last year. The Hon Mr Jenkinson: That is not so. Tho Hon Mr Macdonald: - It is, I think, not a proper course to cast reflections upon hon members opposed to him. Tho Hon T. Kelly said that the Hpu Mr Bigg was a superior sort of person. ,Tiie Hon Mr Bigg: We know what you’d do—you’d run away. The Hon Mr Kelly said the Council must rnlo in tho matter. The Hon Mr Eigg; Yes, the Council will haik down, "and the House will have its way. Tho Hon Mr Louissqn onnosed Mr Bigg’s amendment, and considered his remark; regarding strong men and weak men to bo in bad taste. At the same time, ho considered it wonld bo » retrograde step for the Council to give way. The Hon Mr Jenkinson did not see why they should call each other names. It would not do a great deal of harm, any way, if tho hill did not pass at all. The Hon Mr Bigg: I do; I consider tho position an insult to tho labour people of New Zealand.

Tho Hon Mr Jenkinson went on to say that the objection to the proposed managers was that they were opposed to interference with the closing of shops and the hours of assistants. The Hon Mr Trask, for instance, said assistants should work whenever they wore wanted to. The conference had been dominated bv the leader of the Opposition (Mr Massey). Why should the Hon Mr Pitt want to back down !' Tho Hon Mr Bolt considered that the opinions of Messrs Trask, Macdonald, and Harris on the labour question did not j ustify the Hon Mr Pitt in proposing them as managers. The amendment to strike out the Hon Mr Macdonald’s name was lost by Id votes to 6. and the motion to delete the Hon Mr Trask's name was lost by 16 votes to 4. The Hon Mr Rigg thereupon refrained from calling any further division. The second conference will be held this afternoon.