SHEARERS' CONFERENCE

Southland Times, Issue 17304, 28 March 1913, Page 6

SHEARERS' CONFERENCE

ACCOMMODATION IN THE NORTH ISLAM). GRAVE ALLEGATIONS. (Per United Press Association.) - WELLINGTON. March 27. The Shearers' Conference continued on Wednesday. It was resolved that a deputation wait upon the Minister of Labour urging the necessity of amending the Arbitration Act to enable Dominion Unions lo he registered. Jt was resolved that the conference advocate preference to unionists when obtaining the* next award. Various matters with regard to accommodation were debated at length, and a committee was set up to report to the conference next day. Mr McLeod (Organiser) said lie ' had found that Hawke's Hay hail whares that contained no bunks at all. The workers (men and women) were huddled together at night on the floor like pigs, and this not in one place, but. In many places.

Mr Cooper (President) sahl he had seen them sleeping thus on open veranda! is.

Mr'McLeod. continuing, said I hat the local constable had reported favourably in regard to one place, and yet it bad been a wreck for years past. The sky could be seen through the roof. There was not a single hunk in the place. and the whole building was anchored to ground with wires lo keep it in place. There were no sanitary conveniences. At another there were twenty-five workers (men and women) using the same .sanitary convenience (there was only the one). The roof let in min like a sieve. That was the condition of things in many places in Hawke's Bay. His duties had taken him through the Waitotara. Stratford, and Taranaki districts, and in some eases the accommodation was even worse than he had described previously. .Vt one place, in a space about lift x 14ft, eight Maoris cooked their food and slept. There was not a hunk in the place, merely a few dry ferns thrown on the floor. He knew that tlie.se evils existed, and that the present inspection was a pure farce. A delegate said that he had had as a shearer similar experiences. He had been shearing at a station where fortysix men were in one hut. and though the bad conditions were reported to tlie inspector, the men got no satisfaction. At another place, within six miles of Masterton, Hie accommodation was scandalous. In another case of bad accommodation there were practically no sanitary arrangements for fifty men, just a thin partition between sleeping and eating p'aees, and within Sft was a drain of refuse, and dogs and dead sheep and everything were left there for days. Sometimes it was horrible. The question of registry offices was debated at length, and the conference adjourned till next day.