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 proof, and the Court expressed an opinion that the contract system in the industry affected was not unfavourable to the workers.

It once refused to insert a clause in an award requiring employers to give reasons for the dismissal of men. It held that no worker was under an obligation to give reasons for a desire on his part to sever his relationship with his employer, and it was considered obvious that if the Court was to force employers to give reasons for the dismissal of men, it would be inserting a clause that hitherto had not been contemplated by either party.

The Court was told by the proprietors of Otago brick-fields that the demands of the men, if carried, would increase the cost of producing bricks by 4s. 6d. a thousand. It replied that the people of Dunedin were evidently getting their bricks at a price that would not enable the manufacturers to pay reasonable working expenses or obtain a fair margin of profit. It was shown that bricks were being sold in Dunedin at from 12s. 6d. to 15s. a thousand less than in Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland, the other large centres in the colony, and the low prices in Dunedin were attributed to keen competition between the manufacturers. But the Court refused to let this fact weigh in giving an award. It was there, it said, to see that a reasonably fair rate of wages was paid for the class of work required from the worker in that trade. It therefore embodied in the award the scale of wages in force in Christchurch.

The Court was asked by the Waikato Coal-miners’ Union to fix the shift-wages for miners at 10s. a day, instead of 9s. a shift. The point was disputed by the company that was working the mine, and the Court ordered it to produce its wages-sheets for each pay-day during the whole of the previous year. After a careful examination of those documents the Court came to the conclusion that the tonnage and yardage rates enabled a mine of average skill to make a net wage of about 9s. a shift. The rate, therefore, was not altered in the award.

An industrial agreement was entered into by the Waikato Coal-miners’ Union and the Taupiri Coal Company. By that agreement there was a considerable increase in the heaving-rates, and the company consequently raised the price of coal.