ABORTIVE CONFERENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11295, 22 August 1922, Page 6

ABORTIVE CONFERENCE

SHEARERS’ DISPUTE. (To the Editor “N.Z. Times.”) Sir,- —Under the above heading in your issue of the 21st inst., the secretary of the Sheepowners’ Federation is credited with making statements which came as a revelation to me.- In the first place, I might state that what is claimed to a conference between the parties was simply a meeting of the northern sheepowners to consider a proposed agreement submitted by our agent to the Sheepowners’ Federation. Mr Laracy, who was acting on behalf of the shearers’ unions, interviewed tho president and secretary of the Sheepowners’ Federation in Christchurch, and ■was informed by them that while it was acceptable to the southern districts they were up against the northern sheepowners. It was necessary to put the case before them. Mr Nicholson arranged for a meeting of northern sheepowners and presented the proposed agreement; after they had considered the proposal our agent was told they desired a lower rate which, of course, he could not accept. Mr Nicholson well knows that nothing in the nature of a Dominion conference was 'held in Napier, and it came as a surprise to me when I found that he had approached the court on the matter of hearing the Wellington shearers’ dispute without eonsußing me. It seems to me that the sheepowners and farjners, who have always whined (good times or had), are out to use the shearers’ dispute and the court- to whine some more- not merely to reduce wages that they know cannot any further reduction, but their main purpose is to reduce taxation. C. GRAYNDLBR, Shearers’ Representative.