“ LOOKING FOR BILLETS.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3232, 31 May 1911, Page 2

“ LOOKING FOR BILLETS.”

UNION OFFICIALS AND LABOR DEPARTMENT. A BRUSH WITH THE MINISTER. IPER PRESS ASSOCIATION.! WELLINGTON, May 30. There was another skirmish to-day between the Minister for Labor and tlie Furniture Makers’ Union. Mr. Moriarty, speaking for a deputation from the latter, attacked tlio officers of the Labor Department, and demanded the right to have cases heard in Wellington or to be allowed costs. Mr. Millar said lie was prepared to carry out" the Act, but not to let theUnions do as they liked. He went on to say that there has never been anything but justice given by the Department. “I don’t care,” he said, “if the Department is passed cult altogether, and the Minister too.” Mr. Moriarty: It would be better.

The Minister: I aim quite prepared to give it to you. ' You leave it to the Unionists in New Zealand. I am prepared to say that if the Unionists say they don’t want the Labor Department I will bring in a Bill to repeal the Department. If the Department is- not doing its work to the satisfaction of the people of New Zealand it is no use, and the sooner the people say so the better it will be. lam prepared tc leave the matter to the workers, outside of the employers, and if they say the- don’t want ilt, out it will go. in one act, and you will have the administration of the Act in your own hands. As long as it is there. I have to stand by ■my own officers, unless they are proved to be wrong, and so far I have not seen; it. If the next conference carries a resolution asking for the abolition of the Department- I will be the man to bring down a Bill for the repeal of the Act. Mr. Moriarty: You know well there is no fear of that. When our business was on the floor of the House, two leading secretaries of labor Unions came to me and said, .“You are an absolute fool to fight the Government. You have lost all chance of a Government position. I said to them, ‘ls that what you. are looking for ?\and they said, ‘Yes, we are not going to be Union secretaries all our lives.’ ” “That,” lie added, “was the fact ol the matter. They were looking for Government billets and they wouldn t speak cut like men.’,’