WELFARE OF INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23703, 10 January 1939, Page 9

WELFARE OF INDUSTRY

INDUSTRIAL COUNCILS GOVERNMENT’S NEW PLAN (.Per United Press association) CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 9. The plan for creating an advisory council of industry to assist the Government and to work for the welfar of industry generally was outlined by the new Minister 9! Labour (Mr P. C. Webb) to a gathering of more than MO Canterbury business men, farmers, and workers’ representatives. The Minister suggested the framework of the new councils, leaving details of the organisation to those concerned, and said that one of the objects of the new plan was that all affected might be able to assist and advise the Government in the drafting of new industrial laws- , ~ The Minister, whose address was several times punctuated with applause, was given a hearty vote of thanks for his address. The gathering included representatives of such bodies as the Federation of Labour, the Canterbury Sheep Owners’ Union, the South Island Freezing Companies’ Association, the Alliance of Labour, the Chamber of Commerce, and the New Zealand Farmers Union. A further meeting of those interested in the new industrial councils, even their name the Munster left to the future members, suggesting that they could if they desired call them industrial parliaments, is to be called through the local office of the Labour Department shortly, and the Minister will attend the first meeting. . Several speakers expressed their appreciation of the plan and promised support from the organisations they represented. Canterbury is to have one of a chain of such industrial councils throughout the Dominion Several times in his address Mr Webb appealed for greater harmony in industry, so that employers and workers might get together and assist the Government in working for the industry’s common good. He discussed many aspects of employment, including public works, the supply o A farm labour, the use of youth to run modern machinery which displaced men, and the nature of the activities of -the Labour Department inspectors, whose aim was to bring as few court cases as possible.