CONCILIATION BOARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 11

CONCILIATION BOARD.

SHEARERS' DISPUTE. CONCILIATION OR PARTISANSHIP. MR ANDREW COLLINS'S POSITION. (Froh Our Own Correspondent.) , "" - WELLINGTON, December 31. Trouble loomed up at the meeting of the Conciliation Board to-day when the . shearers' dispute was jailed on. Mr F. Bedford (deputy chairman) presided, and the other members of the board present were Messrs H. Innis (employers' representative, (and Mr Andrew Collins (workers' representative). -- „ Mr J. X 5. Cooper (the Post reports) said he had been appointed by the Wellington Provincial Executive of the- New Zealand Farmers'- Union to appear before 'the board,, not^fqr the purpose 'of giving 1 evidence, but toA' state that they -intended to take the dispute before tne Arbitration. Court. Their, reason for not giving evidence before^ the .Conciliation Board was the fact £hat'""one' -of ite members had taken an active part in the formation of the Shear'erS^Xtoion.

- Mr. Collins: Quite right. I organised them at their own suggestion. • Mr Cooper And we failed £o see how he could be partisan and ' conciliator at the Game time. The fact destroys our confidence" ,in this board, and has brought tibout a condition of -affairs which we re- ' gard as scandalous. I -may say that we are now in a. position to meet" the shearers . and bring about an amicable settlement at a. conference, providing that no member of the board sits at that conference. If such - a conference ta&es place we have reason to believe that a settlement will result, and that it will not be necessary to take the matter. before the Arbitration Court at all. That' is all I have to say. Mr- Collins said he would like to say a few words. He had organised "the Shearers'^ Union (just as he had other country workers) after he had been pestered with. letters in which the writers had complained of the conditions under which they were working. He could assure Mr Cooper- an<i other employers , that so far as he was "concerned "they had no need to fear anything. He declared that this was en' attempt on the" part of the representative of the Employers' Federation to destroy the Wellington Conciliation Board, just- asC- he had boasted of destroying the Diinedin Board. Mr. Pryor: That is a lie. • " Mr -Collins replied that statements to that effect had appeared in the' newspapers arid they had "not- been denied.' That being «so, he thought it was "up to " him to ''publish- verbatim the letters he had received from shearers and agricultural labourers complaining of the conditions and the accommodation provided, for them at preeerft: _" "He recognised .that there were v_ good employers in New Zealand. It was only «•« • few that required to bo brought into line, and the only way to do 'this was by industrial unionism. " Ifc had also appeared: in print that he had helped the sheared ,t to formulate their demands. He gave that statement a total contradiction. j- As a'imatter-^of^-fact, he had-'Jiftt been ripax the rAen for -weelosV •' If ihe "had he 1 would oertainly'j have persuaded •> them ! to -adopt tjhe sameA course »as the' shearers -in Aus- • tpralia ana; ask for 24s per 100. ' The facts "Which 'he , had . 3iecovered in the country yere an 'eye-opener' to him. ' Some of his friends in this district were, sheep farmers, and- they 7 , were prepared to go before the . bfeard, and say that the demands of the aen 'were reasonable. ' In recent years tae prices of/ commodities had gone up. and ttyis - fact applied to shearers „ and farm labourers- -just . the same .as it did to the ■workers engaged- in any other branch of industry, and they were ndt going to sit by ' and be content with the same wages es they received 12 years ago. This was an organised e-tternpt to kill conciliation. Th^y qould-/. go ahead, for he had plenty of "work -to -do outside the Conciliation Boards v He would have time to organise the country workers in the same way as had been done in, the r 'towns. _'"> • Mr Cooper denied v ' that the^ Farmers' Union had been* prompted in its actions by Mr Pryor. It was only the previous evening i that the executive had held a meeting to ♦decide on the .course of action .it should pursue. They had nothing to do with Mr Pryor. j 'Mr Collins : What about the Pryor meeting: ' j Mr Cooper: That, meeting was I quite outside- the union. The message I had to, deliver here was not one which &.ve me pleasure, but after hearing Mr Collins I- am satisfied that the action we have taken is the right one. . j The sitting of the board was then ad- i journed until January 13, when a meeting ' will be, held at Masterton. j "I' w^sh you a hapnv New Year," said j Mr Collins to Mr Cooper as he disappeared througH the door. i