POSITION AT GISBORNE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12857, 29 January 1913, Page 5

POSITION AT GISBORNE.

(Per Press Association.)

GISBOR-NE, January 28. The chairman of the Gisborae Sheep Farmers' Company announces that, the men having made no answer to the offer mada by the conference of 27s 6d with unaltered conditions of work, they must therefore be presumed to staid upon their; notice to cease work on the 31st; therefore, it becomes necessary for the company to see that stops bo taken to protect- the interests of farmers. The factory will ntft closs down unless labour is proved to be unobtainable. Every effort is to h& made to keep the factory going. Expert men are now earning over £7 per week, and this, at the rate now offered, will rise to nearly £8 per week. The demands of the outside Federation, which appears to control free action by the local men, will not in any case be granted by this company. To grant these claims would mean the automatic destruction of the industry throughout by the gradual reduction, in the number of men capable of following it, and the loss to employers of the right to regulate and control the work would also create tyranny over labour itself, which would be intolerable. The men in employment ■will hay© the first offer of work, and their places will be guaranteed till the end of the season in Juno, 1916. All men other than expert slaughtermen will also have guaranteed preferential rights. Fnee labour will be adequately .paid until such labour. becomes efficient. Every effort is 1 to'be' made to retain the present employees, and if they lose their employment it will only b,3 because they prefer not to work.