A MALTSTER'S OCCUPATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14457, 25 February 1909, Page 7

A MALTSTER'S OCCUPATION.

EFFECT ON HEALTH,

i (From Oue Owx Cohrf,spoxp,ext.) CnniSTfIHIRCH. February 23. At (he A filtration Court yesterday the representative of the .Maltsters' ' and Brewers' Industrial Union led evidence to show that the conditions under which a maltster worked were bad for his health. When the employers' representative was about to answer later, Justice Sim stopped him with "There is hardly a business in New Zealand that is healthy, according to the evidence we get in the court." In the course of evidence for the union, Walter Blood, malthoufe and brewery hand, said that ho had known many men whose health had been impaired by the heat of the kilns and the dust from the malt. He considered that the malt-house hands were worth 5a a week more than those working in a. brewery. The Hon. Mr Lonisson stated that in one brewery a maltster had been employed from the age of 25 years until he was 70, and had never been ill. Another was'now 75 years of age, and had never suffered any ill effects. George M'Piiee, maithouso hand and brewer, slated that when he worked in the malthonse he always had a bad cough. He had been in a green kiln when it was impossible to see "your hand before you" because of the steam. In Dnnedin ho had been in a kiln with the temperature at 210deg. In Christehurch the highest temperature ho had experienced was 200deg, but he had also known 190deg. On the other band, Charles Flavell. head maltster at the Christehurch Seed Company's malthonse, said that he had heen employed in a malthonse for 16 years, and bad experienced no ill-health. In the kilns the heat never went higher than ISOdeg, but when the men went into it tho doors and windows were opened, and the heat was much lower.