DISSATISFIED CO-OPERATIVE WORKERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2429, 18 February 1909, Page 6

DISSATISFIED CO-OPERATIVE WORKERS.

A GOVERNMENT INQUIRY. (Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. J 7. Mr. H. J. H. Blow, Under-Secre-tary for Public Works, held an inquiry yesterday into the complaints made, by the co-operative workers on the railway. construction works at Domett. It was explained to the men that the first supposed delay in the payment of wages was due to the fact that the men wore constantly arriving on the works after October Gth, and it was thought that it would be quite a fair thing to pay on the date which was selected. The second delay was due to the holiday season intervening. These special circumstances (having been removed, there should he no irregularity in the future. In regard to the holidays, it was stated that the engineer had made a mistake when lie ruled that a ten days’ holiday was compulsory. -If the men had telegraphed to Wellington they would have been informed that they could work if they chose to do so. The Department was. agreeable to provide all sanitary conveniences necessary to secure decency, and also to furnish firewood . and coal at cost price. In regard to the. request for timber for the floors of tents, the married men were informed that this would be done where there were women or children in the. tents. They were, warned not to burn the timber so provided. The system of payment was discussed, but on this -point the Department was obdurate. The Minister had previously informed the men specifically that the rates would not be raised, and that they compared well with the rates paid in other parts of the Dominion. Mr. Blow, however, undertook to visit several of the cuttings and see the sort of material which was being lifted. The. dismissal of H. Campbell, one of the workmen, who had taken an active part in the labor trouble, was referred to, but Mr. Blow absolutely refused to discuss the causes which led to it. If Mr. Campbell had been present at the inquiry the matter could have been discussed. There was a disposition on the part of the men to drag the subject in “by the .heels,” bub Mr. Blow checked this by informing those who “wanted-infor-mation” that they could “keep on wanting it.”-