GOSSIP FROM THE QUEEN CITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18015, 27 November 1926, Page 10

GOSSIP FROM THE QUEEN CITY.

(Special to the “Star.’’) AUCKLAND, November 27. Bakers’ Wages. * The Conciliation Commissioner (Mr P. Hally) failed to get a complete agreement in the Dominion Bakers and Pastrycooks dispute. The main questions of hours, starting time and wages were accordingly passed along to the Arbitration Court for settlement. The matter of uniform starting time was the most contentious question, the masters fighting for freedom to engage nightworkers when required, but this was strenuously opposed by the fepresentatives of the men. Railway Inquiry. A Departmental inquiry is being conducted at Ngaruawahia into a railway collision which occurred there on Monday when an express train (on which Lady Alice Fergusson was a passenger) from Auckland to Rotorua collided with the engine of a coal train owned by the Waipa collieries. The inquiry is being conducted by Messrs J. F. Macklev, loco engineer, i( chairman), J. G. Rickerby, District Traffic Manager, and J. K. Lowe, District Engineer, all of Auckland. “Apprentices Act Not a Failure.” - When seen by a “Star” representative this morning, Mr Rowley, secretary of the Department of Labour, in discussing the Apprentices Act, said that the telegraphed statement from Wellington credited to him, that the Apprentices Act had been a failure, was incorrect. “So far as it has gone, the Act on the whole has been quite a sue cess. When speaking at the Rotary Club I was merely dealing with the question of finding employment for boys as they leave schools and stated that, although a large number of boys were applying to the Department at its invitation, the employers had responded poorly, with the result that most of the boys were turned away disappointed. Many wished to take up skilled trades Such as building. The main portion of the Act, namely the work of the apprenticeship committee and the training of apprentices, is working satisfactorily.”