SKIPPING FINANCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16820, 24 August 1922, Page 8

SKIPPING FINANCE.

DISCUSSION BARRED IN ARBITRATION COURT. (Per Prkss Association.) WELLINGTON. August 23. The question of the finances and profits of shipping companies, which on the previous day liad been ruled out of order as irrelevant, again cropped up in the Arbitration Court, during the hearing of the Seamen’s dispute, Lind the argument upon the point took place between the Bench and the Union’s re;p resell ta hive, Mr AY. T. Young, secretary of the Feclwerated Seamen’s Union." | Mr Young suggested to a witness i that life ? fern Id present, his company’s ■ balance-sheet for perusal. j Mi* T. O. Bishop, representative of i the Shipowners’ Federation, said that | that point had already been settled by | the Court. j Mr Young: I submit it has not been ' settled. These proceedings started out j on the issue of finance. Defeated on j that, the other side has retreated and j brought up the question of eompetij tion in trade. Evidently defeated on l that, they are now retreating to the ; question as to what is a fair wage for j work performed. I don’t know where ' we shall be retreating to next. Mr .Justice Frazer reiterated his rul- ; ing of the previous day that unless i the employers pleaded bankruptcy, the Court could not concern itself with the ! eerned with the issue n- to what were fair con d cions," and what were fair rates of pay for the nature of the work performed. Mr Young: It seems to me that the worker gets a different ruling on a specific issue as the years go by, nooording to circumtances. 1 recollect > his Honor Mr Justice Cooper ruling in our proceedings in this dourt in 1.902 that wages and overtime could only be determined on the profits of the employers. His Honor said that he thought that the general ruling for some years past, both in Australia and in New Zealand. had been ordinarily that the Court did not regard the condition of the industry. He mentioned n case in Mr Justice Martin's time, in which a match manufacturing firm commencing operations in Wellington wished to pay exceedingly low wages. The question of manufacturing expenses was raised, and the Court ruled, as it had always done since, that an industry must pay fair living wages. Cases had occurred in South Australia in which in times of extreme depression, when industries had pleaded poverty and that they were hard pressed, the Court had suspended awards so as to enable the parties to confer upon the question of reduced wages for n limited period. The Court in New Zealand had not had occasion to do anything like that until poverty was actually pleaded. It would adhere to its ruling, investigate the nature of the work and fix fair rates and conditions accordingly. The | companies in the. present dispute were not pleading poverty or financial strain so much ns slackness of trade, which i everyone knew prevailed all over the world. This question was mixed up with the question of competition from j outside, where other companies were : paying lower rates. The Court considered these factors in determining whether the rates awarded in the past or fixed by agreement during -or since the war had been adanved unduly and out of proportion to the nature of the work and the cost of living. The employers in the present case, disclai rned all through the dispute that they were pleading poverty. i Young: Then what have they got j us here for? j His Honor: For a revision, appar- ! entlv. of the whole dispute. They are • asking us to determine fair rates and condition's Mr Young : Could not all that have | been accomplished through the medium | ol a conference? His Honor said that if both parties ■ were in the mood to confer no doubt the dispute could be settled. The ; Court was willing to adjourn if there was any' possibility of that. Mr Young: I think the Court should order it. (Laughter.) Mr Bishop (one of the employers’ representatives) : We prefer to leave it Mr Young; I know you do. (Laughj ter.) His Honor: 1 suppose that at a time like this we must recognise that either . side can hardly take the responsibility I for agreeing to altered conditions. It j would be very awkward for the officials ! of the union to agree to modifications j of conditions fixed during the war. Mr Young: Union officials arc not in j any way afraid of their responsibility, i His Honor: It is not a question of ; being afraid. The responsibility is ‘ rather a heavy one to place on the executive of ;i union. Times are much more critical than they were two or three years ago. Mr Young: What is the difference, your Honor, between parties meeting in conference and unions’, representatives taking the result to meetings of members of their organisations and asking them whether they will agrfce to them, and our coining to the Court and subsequently taking the of the Court to the men and asking them if they will agree to it? His Honor: I don’t know that that is a proper way to deal with an award of the Court. An award must be dealt with according to law. His Honor agreed that more satisfactory results were obtained by conciliation. In times of stress, as at present, it was much more difficult to arrive at an agreement in that way. In fact, it required rather exceptional tact on both sides to secure an agreement at all. After further discussion, Mr Young maintained that members of the Seamen’s Union had never been paid a pioper wage for their services. His Honor said that it would be quite proper for the union’s representatives to raise that contention in dealing with their side of the case. r fT*f* Court had been careful all along not to express an opinion one way or the other concerning the men’s earnings, but he knew that wages paid to seamen in the past had been ridiculously low. He wished the question of finances to be disposed of once and for all. Until the shipping companies pleaded destitution the Court -would not consider any question of finance from the point of view of bankruptcy of the companies. Mr Young: I have an article prepared on finances, and 1 claim the right to read it in this case. His Honor: Why should we go into i it. though. Air Young? The other side do not dispute the question. Mr Young: Why is there such an evident desire to put the cover on finance ? His Honor: Whv do you wish to lift the cover? It is for the other side to plead poverty. If they don’t do so you cannot throw riches at them. The subject was then dropped. Mr “Tom” Pollard, who was engaged to produce the opera “ Toreador ” for the Wellington and Christchurch Amateur Operatic Societies, is still indisposed, Mr Pollard underwent an operation about six weeks ago. In consequence of his continued illness, the production of “Toreador” has had to he postponed indefinitely.