F21 ArouR, 19-14.1 189 politician in the world, let alone in Auy- legislative EssenmblV. tralia, is afraid to come to this State. There ione man in this Chamber for whom 1 Tuesday. .2M~ A ugust. 1971. have the greatest respect-I refer to 'Me. 1folmies-lut I saw a letter from him that I WE ;ta. published in the Press in which lie su,- Que~tionn il trae lIg .. .. 'so gested to the lpeople of Western Australiai Addrcs-in*Ilepy. dali,ii, m............... 'Si, that they iiiht foreet what Sir George Pearce, Bertie Johnston and others had done, and thereby vote for the Labour The SPEAKER took till Chair at 4.30 vote candidate; whereas he wanted them to j).IU. andi rea d 1,d yet's. anti-Labour. Hon. J1. J. Holmes: I never said that. Hon. K. C. VVILLIAMS: Yes, you did! QUESTION-BIRD TRAPPING. I would eerta i nv not ,nuscontrue what you Trafflc with, Eastern States. said. When Mr. H-olmes claimis that this Chamber is non-party, it is not so. If there r.(OVNERI 4 EY' asked the Premier: 1, is a Cha mher that is a better pa rtv House Is the Fisheries Department aware flint than this. I (In not k now. of it. In thec ranks Eastern States hird trappers are alleged to of the Labour Party, we arc pledg'ed to lie trapping, in the Kimberley district, and stick tmrether, unless we twist, in which using motor trucks to transport birds event we are en ti tled to do as wve like. I through the Northern Territoriy to the South could tick off those who have twisted on Australian market, to the detriment of Lab~our, hut [ do not want to make this a West Australian dealers? 2, Is it a fact that personal matter. They stick to their new pli-u 1,200 birds were shipped from tihe Zoolo- tical party, without which they wvould not be gical Gardens to a dealer named Tu rner, in members of this Chamber. Why be hypo- Sydney, this year? "'ill do trites? 'If the Labour Government The PREMI1ER replied: 1 and 2, No. what I want them to, they will suit me down to the ground. I want them to dis- sociate themselves from the Premiers' ADDRESS-IN -REPLY. Plan right away. If they do not do so, they will not lie returned at the next election. Eighth Day~. On motion by Hon. J. George, debate ad- Debate resumed from the 16th August. journed. MISS HOLMAN (Forrest) (4.3.3]: 1 w-as interested in reading in the Lieutenant- H-ouse adJourned at 8.53 p.m. Governor's Speech a very promising para- graph about the timber industry. It means a great dleal to the State for the timber industry to he in a pirospierous condition. and it is a fact that during the past 12 months or so many of the muills in this State have beens re-opened. Mfy owvn electorate, Forrest, has shared in the revival of the in- dlustry, and many of Mfillar's mills have now been re-opiened. There aire several that have iiot yet re-opened, Jarrahdale and Marrinup being tw-o of them. It means a great deal to the State to have the men employed in the timber industryv, and it is of great cre- dit to the Government that sustenance mid relief work have been reduced by so much, and that by their encouragement the timber industry hais come to life again, so to speak, and taken into employmvient so many of those men. I expect there are over 1,000 [ASSEMBLY.] mt.' employed in the millIs at the present help the timber industry, since it is of such, time. The State Sawmills are working at a great benefit to tile State. One 1)art of full-nal, rate. They deserve great erediit the timber industry I should like to parti- for the work they did during the depressiu., cularise is that of the sleeper-cutters, of For they were the only1 mills that remained w-hoi, there are about 600. Thle sleeper- working at least part-tine during- the whIole cutters, ats members have been told before, of the lperioil. T notice iii the Speech at re- areC exploited to at great extent by.%contra"- ferencee to tile hl.g period of muontrolled tors and sub-contractors. Sonic contractors. exploitationl, wvhich hals created a. posi tioim own blocks, while others have no bush at that, according to the Speech, can only be all, but just put in a price onl spec, as it mnet byv reasonably restricting the output Were. Sleeper-cuitters are exploited, and from existing forests until the second crop) trea not covered by thle Industrial is flea ring, maturityv ]in times gone by there Ar bitration Act nor by the Masters was uncontrolled exploitation of forests, ajal Servants Act. 'his was not and many ~omipanies hlaid great tracts of dliscovered until 1931. Prior to that timlber. lanid, omit of which they took the pick time we always held the idea that sleeper- Of the timber, without replacing a single cutters were workers, just as other memibers bice. It 'was left to the Government to comec of' the industry. However in 1031 at sleeper- along and start reforestation. As I men- eutter named "Milentis sued a sub-contractor tioned just now, tile State Sawmiills, which named Tucak. but lost the ease and also the were not concerned in that period of un- vaes hie had earned by cutting sleepers. controlled exploitation, have worked for the Thie award certainly made proivision benefit of the State all through; they wore for at man using a broad axe or the only employers that kept their mills adze, aii,< it was thought that this covered g-oing throughout the terrible depression sleeper-cutters. However, that was not so. that was suffered by this State, in coaliton The Timbierwvorkers' Union applied to the with other countries. The Government have court for anl addition to that clause, spedi- reduced some of the freight onl timber. fIn Lying what it meant. This was the pddition 1.13 they introduced at reduced scale of they asked foi- f,-eighit onl timber, and that has now been MoTans a. ,vorker using a broad-axe to adz.c extended till next year. The railway charges ill -olincetion wvith, the hewing of tilmber, and includes it sleeper-c utter or heann-ettter. for export overseas; have bmeen rebated l012 per- cent., and on timber for the Eastern But the Industrial Arbitration Court found' States 12%/ per cent. There is no reduction that this was outside its jusisdiction. and for the traffic within the State itself, and so the application was refused. The sleeper- pos~sibl v it would be a good thing for the cutters have been suffering a very leanl time Government to take into consideration that during the depression, and indeed tile rate the carriage of timber over the railway sys- the ordinary sleeper-cutter gets is flow only temn returns are second largest amount of £:2 lpel load. The injustice of this will be all the pay'ing traffic in the State. Thus, seen wvhen I quote the .1917 rates, whbich in 1932-33 no less than 175,026 tons of local wvere £l16s. and 1 14s., with an allowance timber wvas carried over the State lines, anid for tools. There is now no allowance for in 19.33-34 the quantity carried was 265,863 tools. In 1919 those rates had to be cal- tonis. Those two tonnages mea nt that, inl culated on 13s. a dlay, day wages, and the 1932-33, £145,000 was paid in freight to the prices for loads of sleepers were 4 8s. 9d. railways, and in 1033-34 the amount rose to told 46s. To-day the price is £2 per loadl, £207,400. During the last financial year andI unscru pulous contractors or sub-con- thle money received by the State railway tractors still persuade thle men to sign system from the carriage of timber amount- agreements, in order to avoid having to pay ed to 10.07 per- cent, of the total receipts insurance. One case recently came to my of the railways. Then firewood was re- niotice in which a malat £2 4s. for cutting sponsible for .95 per cent, of the receipts wvandoo sleepers, and there was no insur- of the system. There was only one other ance. The mn have to pay their own in- freight which paid more to the railways, surance, or else not be insured, and natur- and that amount was received for the car- i:ly they were not insured, because they riage of wheat. So T feel that the Govern- <-o'iid not live onl the amount earned, On mrent could afford to do a great deal to that particular job the men averaged over [21 AUCT.ST, 19:34.] 191 u oiven time Ss. wages per day. We must onily for their food. They- get their stores realise that wandoo is heavier to cut than] fromt the storekeeper, and see p~ractic-ally no i, jarrabl and the price is very low. mioney. Whether thle bush is goad or bail,. Thle royalty is a very heavy charge Onl it is all[ the samne for the sleeper cutter-s. The timnber. There has been a rebate in the citractors pa'y by the load, and what the fore~try royalty, a 20 per cent. rebate, sleeper cutter earnis is no0 business Of the s-inee kApril, 1931.