EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9336, 29 January 1892, Page 2

EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Auckland, January 29 At the meeting of the Employers' Association, held yesterday, the report read was a lengthy one. X detailed the work of the past year An attempt had been made to form a board of conciliation, Mt had fallen through Reference was also made to the work iIP P lO c°nference of employers held m Wellington, which had. been instrumental n getting several objectionable features removed from the labour bills. The boot strike was also touched on. The grievances of the labourers had been inquired into. A lenethv discussion on strikes and their evil effects and tendencies is included in the report, in which it is urged that strikes and lockouts are arbitrary and improper methods of industrial contention, which inflicts suffering and loss on innocent women and children without adequate compensation even to the winners, and that a kindly feeling between wage-payers and wage-earners will best secure fairplay S? mn?u 4nd -man' *«» avert industrial mf F™i The,°P mioa. <* the Hon. J. Ballance, on Employers' Associations, was quoted with regret. The policy of the association in the s™;,' 11,. 1' lMSsi. ble more strenuously directed to the securing of industrial and comZ,,4 •nP'°h Speriy and lieace- ' The state of things in the old country also found a place m the report, which closed by stating that had the effect of making meu trust less to strikes and more to legislation, and in the future your executive think^mployers will have to contend with not open, but secret, combination^ not strikes, but legislative "coercion." The finances of the association are good, there being a small credit balance and no liabilities. Mr C. C. M'Millan, in moving the adoption of the report referred to the late boot strike, which he spoke of as the most unjustifiable which ever occurred in this community. He also spoke of the evils of strikes in general, and suggested that married men should have a dual vote in unions. The single men, he said, look upon a strike with indifference. They secure 1-1 per week, and have an excellent holiday. To married men it is a very different matter. Great self-denial has to be used, and great rifi* <S ta£ jd UV- On hel Pless women and children. If ,t required a majority in both orders-married and single-before a strike commenced he believed strikes would be less numerous, and a better feeling would exist between the different classes of the community He also recommended more meetings of employers and employed. He was sure he spoke the sentiments of each member of the association «fMM r .Was the wish of each one to establish cordial relations between employes and employers. Capital aria labour were dependent one upon the other, and to produce co-operltfe £3? * req"ired the ««dU