ARBITRATION COURT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8350, 23 June 1905, Page 3

ARBITRATION COURT.

The Arbitration Court resumed sitting this morning, Mr Justice Chapman presiding. TAILORING TRADE UNION v. KAIAFOI WOOLLEN MANUFACTURING COMPANY. His Honor read the Court's judgment in the case of tho Christchurch Tailoring Trade Industrial Union of Workers v. the Kaiapoi Woollen Manufacturing Company, Limited, an application for enforcement. The proceeding was for enforcement of Clause 13 of the award dated April 18, 1903. Tho application stated that the respondent company did try on garments before completion, between May 1, 1903, and April 25, 1804, which was a breach of Clause 3. The evidence showed that the respondent company had at times tried on "chart order garments, which* it was making either for some storekeeper or other shopkeeper; or for a direct customer. Men had sometimes been employed doin £ > the work priced in the lines of tne log mentioned subsequently. The main defence raised was that .the respondent company was only doing what it was entitled to do, in virtue of an earlier award, embodying the tailoresses' log, dated June 2, 1902. When the Union had pointed out to the manager that the log only related to female labour he insisted, virtually, that there was no objection to men doing women s work. Clause 13 in question was either consistent with the tailoresses' s log or was inconsistent. If consistent the two might be read together. If the latter was inconsistent with the former it must give way to the 1 former, as rights acquired under an earlier award oou-d not be taken away by a later one unless the parties to the original award were bound ' by the later one. It was not enough ibac the respondent company was a party to both. The earlier award remained"} force until wholly or partially repealed by an award binding the same parties. After quoting from the log now in force, his Honor said that the Court came to the conclusion that tne respondent had the right to try on chart orders, and that the tailoring trade award could not derogate from that right so far as it extended. The question, however, arose as to the extent of the right expressly recognised by the tailoresses' award. Full scope must be given to the incidental effect of the log, but it must not be overlooked that it was made in an award between the employers who were parties to it and a union consisting of female operatives. It did not, however, merely affect all members of that | Union, as it would bo equally a breach of it for an employer to pay a lower rate to women who were not members, or for such women to accept employment at a lower rate. It would not, however, have been a breach of the first award to have employed men at a lower rate. Such a thing was so inconceivable tha* it never occurred *o anyone to suggest prohibiting it, and it was not prohibited. The whole.sureject of the employment of men in this connection, therefore, remained a subject to be dealt with by any other award. It had now been dealt with by the tailoring trade award. Ihe Union which applied for that award consisted of both men and women, but that could- not affect the question. Full scope must be given to the factory log. and as full scope as was consistent with that to all restrictive clauses of the later tailoring trade award. The only result that the Court could arrive < at was that the former affected the employment of women »"£ work done by women in factories, whilst the latter restrained measuring for chart orders, save with respect to the .work which might be done under the log. This did not by any means result in the Court _ holding that Clause 13 wad inoperative. K would operate to restrain some ot the acts complained of, though not distinctly proved as charged. There were, moreover, parties to the award, who were not within the protection of the tailoresses' log. The Court, however, was not disposed to speculate as to how far exactly the clause operated, as this might tend to prejudice parties who were not before the Court. In order, formally, to dispose of the application, it was dismissed without costs. _ Mr Dougall appeared for the Union and Mr Russell for the respondent company. A COMPENSATION CASFj. His Honor delivered judgment in the case in which Denis Murphy claimed £400 from W. R. Lyttelton, owing to the death of his son, by accident, in tho course of his employment by the respondent on August 27, 1904. It had been proved to the satisfaction of the Court, his Honor said, that deceased had earned £1 per week and his board, and had given substantially his whole wages to his sister, who used the money in carrying on the household. The Court thought that in a case like this it was entitled to look at the whole situation of the family and include all who might legally be dependents, if, in fact, t,hey were found to be dependents. It was possible that, apart from his family obligations, the claimant might have lived off his farm, and that, apart from hers, deceased's sister, Mrs Clarkson, might in some way have made a living. Her children were not dependents of deceased, but their existence might be one of the causes which made her dependant, and in this way it was one of the facts of the case. In the same way the claimant and his wife came to be dependents because of their actual situation at the moment of the son's death. The Court therefore held that the claimant and hiß wife and two daughters were dependents in the sense in which the i Legislature had used that expression in reference to a family in thi? situation. By analogy to several previous cases, the Court held that the proper sum to be paid by the respondent was £250, together with £19 13s for medical and funeral expenses, £7 7s costs, with witnesses' expenses and disbursements to be fixed by the clerk of awards. IRON AND BRASS MOULDERS' CASE. The hearing of the Christchurch Iron and Bras 3 Moulders' Union's dispute was continued. C. T. Clements, cross-examined by Mr Cooper, said that he had been paid 10s a day by J. Anderson and Son. Moulders in Dunedin, whether on heavy or light work, received 10s a day, but they had got only 9s a day for the same class of work in Christchurch. Witness was president of the Union, and the moulders only wanted a little of the wealth that they were creating for capitalists in Christchurch. They felt that they were worth it. "Mr Cooper : You ask for the extra threepence" an hour out of profits? Would you be prepared to reconsider the demand if the manufacturers showed that there was no such profit? Witness -replied that tho men would be prepared to oonsider the question. To Mr T. Danks: It -was his opinion that any ordinary moulder could make a brass casting. Mr J. L. Scott said that the employers would call evidence. They would endeavour to show that it was impossible to pay . the rate proposed, and that the hours suggested were, inconvenient, as there were other awards with which employers had to comply. Thomas Danks 'said that he was engaged principally in brass-founding. The proposed hours would not only be inconvenient, but would have the effect of necessitating a cast every eight hours instead of every eight hours and a half, resulting in an increase of the cost of manufacture by one-eleventh. The conditions of his trade would not warrant an increase in wages. In order to compete 6uccossfully with other countries there would have to be a reduction in wages. Then more men could b© employed. Two ves-

j sels from America had brought 10.380 j packages of iron-ware and machinery to New Zealand recently, and eighteen ships arrived from America every yp.ar with similar cargo, articles which could he nearly all manufactured in the colony. There wsa not a bright outlook iv the brass-moulding trade, and the depression would be accentuated by an increase ol : wages, and trades which depended on brass-moulding for fundamental parts of products, would bo detrimentally affected. Regarding the limitation of the number of apprentices, one in three would practically close the industry. Piece-work was the only way in which tne employers got paid for "their work; it was the only way in which they could carry on business. It had not been introduced into his trade yet, but it would have to come. He thought an employer should take a man that suited him ; if he save preference to Unionists he would have- to shut up. Questioned by Mr Hooper, who appeared for the Union, witness said that he employed one man, at 10s a day, a special tradesman. Mr Hooper submitted that in twelve years' time, at the rate boys were employed in foundries at present, the nvirber of moulders would be doubled. The witness replied that the number could be trebled. There would be work for them. Mr Hooper: "At low wages." John Anderson, a member of the firm of Anderson, Limited, said that he thought that a healthy man could work eight hours a day. The old colonists had not been impaired by working for that period, or a longer one. The trade could not stand a minimum wage of 11s a day. The employers cculd pay that sum to a first-class man but not toa" duffer." If the 11s rate were enforced the bulk of the firm s staff would be imported. The manufacturers in New Zealand were doing their best to keep work in the colony. The bonus system had been a great stimulus to industry in Great Britain and America; it was a fair kind of piece-work. The best rnaii should get pi ef erence. To Mr Hooper : He did not^ believe in low wages, but ho was opposed to restrictions. Business in moulding was slack. JoKn Duncan, of the firm of P. and D. Duncan, gave evidence that trade would not warrant the concession of the Union's demands in the matter of v.acres and hours. To Mr Hooper : The firm, had exported agricultural machinery, but only samples. Frank Cooper, of the firm of Cooper and Duncan, Limited, said that -his opinions coincided with those expressed by the previous witness. _ Tho^ firm had to import malleable castings in order to compete with others, and if wages had to be raised soft castings would have to be- imported. sAt one o'clock Mr Scott said that he had six more witnesses to call. His Honor said that the Court did not wish to hurry Mr Scott. The members had to leave by the evening's steamer, and a couple of hours would not be sufficient to "complete- the hearing. The case would be adjourned, and would be resumed in about a fortnight's time.