LABOUR SHORTAGE

Otago Witness, Issue 3404, 11 June 1919, Page 6

LABOUR SHORTAGE

RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION CONDEMNED. GENEROUS PROFIT-SHARING VENTURE. ANNUAL MEETING OF NOKOMAI SLLTCIN G COJVI PANY. The twenty-first annual meeting of shareholders in the Nokomai Hydraulic Sluicing Company was held at the company's olfice, Stafford street, on the 6th inst. The chairman (Mr H.-Crust) presided. In his speech Mr Crust drew attention to the shortage of labour, which had been severely handicapping the company of late years, and referred to a profit-sharing scheme which the directors had adopted as a means of meeting the difficulty. Later in the meeting Mr H. K. Wilkinson spoke on the same subject and strongly opposed the restrictive legislation which makes it practically impossible to introduce Asiatic labour into this country. In moving the adoption of the annual report and balance sheet the chairman said the directors regretted not being able to meet them without a more satisfactory report of the past year's .operations. Their main trouble was still the labour problem. Sufficient men to carry on the company's work profitably could not be obtained. At present,' including the two managers, they had only four Europeans at the claims. Of the Chinese employed a good many were getting on in years and would be leaving and returning to China, and owing to the restrictions imposed by Parliament on Chinese coming to the dominion they could riot be replaced. The whole position was a difficult one. The price of their product (gold) remained the same, though the prices of everything that they required to carry on the company's operations had advanced from 40 to 50 per cent., and in some cases 100 per cent. As they would have seen from the report their directors, as an additional inducement to their men to stick to them and do their best, and to induce ethers to take emplovment with them, had formulated a profit-sharing scheme. The directors hoped their action would be approved by shareholders and that it would tend to improve the company's prospects. During the year one dividend of Is per share was paid, but later it was found necessary to draw on tho reserve to the extent of £2OO to meet current outgoings. Since the report was printed, however, some fair returns had been got, and they had been able to restoro the amount. The reserve account now stood at £1342 15s lOd. Of the retiring directors. Mr Black did not offer himself for re-election. He had been a director of tho company since its formation in 1898, and with his practical knowledge had been of much value. His loss was sin-

cerely regretted by his co-directors, and he might say by the shareholders generally. . Mr Wilkinson, who seconded the motion, said they had come nearly to the parting of the ways in this company. It was now some 21 years since the company _ was started, and that was through the initiation and enterprise and courage of the late Mr Sew Hoy, who spent something like £17,000 on the property before asking any European to co-operate with him. To show the magnitude of the company's operations it was only necessary to say that since its inception it had produced 46,2950 z of gold, of a total value of £172,990. To carry on this work the company had expended in wages and on material £128,807. Owing to the peculiar labour conditions brought about by the war and other causes at the moment it seemed to be impossible to get a sufficient amount of labour to carry on the operations of the company. In the early days of the company a large number of Chinese were employed on this work, but the restrictions against bringing Chinese labour to New Zealand had been so strengthened as to make it practically impossible to bring_ Chinese into the country. Personally ho thought that was a serious drawback, not only to the company but to the country. He maintained that there was a large amount of work" that could be carried out by coloured labour in a country like this without it being any detriment to the white labour. If the law was to make it compulsory that no coloured labour should be employed at -a lower rate of wages than that currently paid to white labour he- thought that in itself would bo a sufficient protection to the white labourer. —("Hear, hear.") As a consequence he' thought the best forms of employment would be occupied by white labour and the less attractive carried on by the coloured labour to the great benefit of the country. At present we were retarding progress and starving the country to death almost for the want of labour. We were also, in his judgment, making the conditions of life less attractive to all concerned as a consequence of, limiting the labour as we were by this legislation. They, as directors, had made a new departure, and were offering to labour a co-partnership scheme in connection with the production of gold by the company.' The idea was that before they paid a shilling dividend they should accumulate a sufficient fund to pay 5 per cent, bonuses on the past six months' wages to every employee in the company, so that the employees were placed in the position of getting the- same results from the profits of the company as the capitalists did. He had never known of any scheme propounded "offered so much liberality to working men as this scheme did. He was exceedingly interested to see what effect it would have. Personally he was not over sanguine about its result, for tho reason that men were all looking for soft jobs in the towns. The spirit of pioneering seemed to have died out. The spirit of enterprise was being killed by restrictive legislation in every direction, which tended to temper

and spoil and debauch the independence of the citizen, and it was exceedingly difficult to see where this was going to lead. There was an opinion abroad that the fund from which labour was paid was inexhaustible. In his judgment it was only so long as the production of the country was kept up that that fund could be sufficient for the demands upon it. The whole tendency of the present day was to limit production as much as possible and to get as much for as little as it was possible to do. That was reversing what he considered to be the proper way to proceed. In response to the chairman stated that the Chinese employees of the company were getting the same wages as the white men. Mr PI. Crust (retiring director) and Mr L. D. Ritchie were elected to the directorate. The retiring auditor (Mr R. T. Wheeler) was reappointed at the same remuneration as previously. The remuneration of the directors was fixed at the same sum as last year. Mr. A.' Black, referring to the early history of the company, said he did not think there was a European that would have tackled the enterprise that Mr Sew Hoy carried through _to such a successful conclusion in forming the company. The staff and secretary and . directors were accorded a hearty vote of thanks.