SEAMEN’S WAGES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16740, 23 May 1922, Page 8

SEAMEN’S WAGES.

MR SMITH’S ADDRESS. [Pee PsiH Association.] , AUCKLAND, May 22. The hearing of the seamen’s dispute was continued before the Arbitration Court to-day. Mr Smith continued that if New Zealand rates were to be determined by Australian Courts the sooner New Zealand became a State of the Commonwealth the better,! so that its people would have a voice in the making of the laws. He mentioned a statement by Mr Young at a meeting of the Conciliation Council in Dunedin. If correctly reported Mr Young had said he did not wish .to say anything in the nature of a threat, and he said it emphatically and deliberately that under no circumstances whatever would they tolerate a decrease in anything that they had at the present moment. If this was the attitude of the union it could only mean that if the Court’s award was not what it wanted there would be trouble of some kind or other, and therefore the Court was urged to make it a condition of the award -that the union should give a bond for a substantial sum conditioned against any two or more of its members in combination failing to accept work as a means -of enforcing compliance with any demand. If unfortunately the union was misguided enough to adopt such a course as hinted at by Mr Young it was only fair th’at the employers should not have their hands in any way fettered in dealing with the situation and should have the option of treating the award as null and void. Mr Young was also reported to have said at Dunedin that there was a difference in wages of £5 10s between what the employers offered and the union asked, and ho suggested that that should be divided by half and settle ou that basis. This would he a reduction of the basic rate by £1 12s per m-offth. He urged the Court to confine its attention to the 1917 agreement and the alterations asked for by the employers, which were in every way reasonable and just to the workers.