FOOTWEAR TRADE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21963, 15 May 1941, Page 9

FOOTWEAR TRADE

VOTING ON INDUSTRIAL PLAN (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 14. The Minister of industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) said that the statement by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr 8. G. Hofland) on licensing in the footwear Industry certainly did not tend to help the war effort. “Mr Holland attacks my statement announcing the formation of an industrial committee consisting of representatives of the State and of the principals and employees of the industry, and challenges me to answer a series of questions,” said Mr Sullivan, “the implication being that the plan Whs not carried by a majority of those engaged in the industry. “Of tl.ose who voted, 29 principals out of 53 (or 55 per cent.) favoured the plan, and on an employee basis 2269 (or 53 per cent.) out of 4471 workers in the whole industry, voted in its favour. There are 73 principals engaged in the industry and there were 20 non-voters, whose employees totalled 197. “Therefore,” said the Minister, “I was legally entitled to recommend to the Government that the plan be implemented by regulations, even though the majority was slender and on an employee basis. An industrial committee has already begun to function, and this committee is thoroughly representative of all sections of the industry. “Some leading and respected firms who opposed the plan have accepted in the best possible spirit the decision to proceed with it,” added Mr Sullivan, “and have promised their full co-oper-ation.”