I.—B.

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would amount to about £1 15s. Possibly that man would work twenty hours a week taking it right through the year. 164. That is an average of £1 10s. or £1 15s. ?—Of course ; that man would go out and compete with other workers. 165. Mr. Barclay.] You say the lowest rate is about 7s. 6d. a day : that would be principally the eight-hour-day men? —Yes. 166. That would be the same whether men put in the eight hours in a day or not ?—Practically only overtime is worked at night, as in the freezing-works the overtime is two or three hours in the night or morning. 167. You say in the different departments the case varies: in some cases they give extra pay for overtime, and in some they do not ?—Yes. 168. Take your own department?—ln our department there is no extra pay for overtime, but there is less overtime worked in our department than in any other. 169. In your own opinion, is this overtime absolutely necessary ? —ln our department I should say it is not all absolutely necessary. 170. About the petition in the fellmongery department: could you tell us where that petition came from ? Mr. Colquett: It emanated from the fellmongers. 171. Mr. Barclay (to Mr. Colquett).] It was got up by them ?—Yes. 172. Did they have a meeting?— Yes ; we had a meeting amongst ourselves. 173. At that meeting was it suggested that this petition be drawn up ?—Yes. 174. The Chairman (to Mr. Carter).] I understand, as far as the Gear Meat Company is concerned, there is practically no overtime there. You have to work forty-eight hours before you come on to overtime, Mr. Carter?— That only applies to the labourers in the fellmongery. After working for that period they get their overtime. 175. In the other departments it is the same way ; they can work twelve hours in one day and have no such thing as overtime. Unless they work over forty-eight hours in the week there is no overtime —that is, so far as the weekly-wage men are concerned ?—That only applies to the labourers in the fellmongery. They work forty-seven hours. They knock off at 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoons. 176. And in the other departments they work forty-seven hours, do they not ?—ln the other departments they work forty-eight. Mr. Parrant: With the slaughtermen's department, if a man works twelve hours he is paid by the hour. They are paid for holidays right through the year in this department. 177. The Chairman (to Mr. Parrant).] There is no overtime in the slaughtermen's department at all ? —No ; not for the weekly hours. They are paid Is. an hour. In the slack season they have nothing whatever to do. 178. Mr. Hutcheson (to Mr. Wynyard).] There are different rates of pay, I understand, in your department. You state in the chambers, when moving the meat about from one place to another, you are paid a certain rate, and when you are discharging meat to the ship you get another rate of pay ?—Yes ; we get another rate, Is. 6d. an hour. 179. What proportion of the whole staff are employed in connection with the freezing chambers ? —ln their busy season there are seventeen; during the present time there are only about four. Our work starts at 6 o'clock or earlier ; it depends upon the quantity of work to be done. After the meat is passed into the storeroom and frozen the discharging comes in, which is a heavier class of work; you have to keep the staff going at the other end. 180. Am I right in assuming the time of beginning work and the number of hours worked by the whole of the departments depend really upon when the slaughtermen begin—you are more or less dependent upon that department ?—Yes. 181. Mr. Hardy (to Mr. Parrant).] Is it not the custom in the Gear Company, or in other companies in Wellington, to pay so much a hundred ? —The labouring hands get so much per hour. Mr. William Cable examined. (No. 25.) The Chairman : I understand that Mr. William Cable and Mr. C. M. Luke desire to give evidence on this Bill. Mr. Cable, will you kindly give us your views on the Bill ? Mr. Cable : Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, we are clearly of opinion that the iron trade could not work under the provisions as proposed in this Bill. We are getting along very smoothly with the Act as it is in force at present, but we must ask you, gentlemen, if the Bill is to go through at all, to exempt the iron trade from working under its conditions. We are all, more or less, " machinery doctors," and if we are put under the conditions of this Bill it will simply upset the whole business of the country put together. For instance, we are not allowed to work on the Saturday afternoon, or Sundays, or holidays. Now, it must be apparent to you, gentlemen, that factory repairs are always held over to the time when the factory hands have done their week's work and are enjoying themselves. If the engineers are not allowed to do these repairs, then it simply means that the workers, instead of being able to get their steady work in the full week, would have to wait until the repairs were finished and then work overtime. For instance, where repairs would take night and day, say, for a couple of days, it would simply mean that the whole of these factory-workers would be idle for a week. Another thing, there is no provision in the Bill for the firemen in the various factories to be allowed time to get up the fires. If the fireman is not to be allowed to work for more than eight hours, it simply means that the works will only be running for practically three-quarters of a day. He must have from one to two hours to get up steam, and another hour to bank his fires at night. If this has to be done within the eight hours, ironmoulders cannot work eight hours. It is simply impossible for us to do repairs under these conditions. We cannot, in a great variety of instances, duplicate our men. Eepairs in all the various branches are done by the pick of us, and it is simply an impossibility for, say, one blacksmith to