REFORM GOVERNMENT SUPPORTED.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14830, 22 November 1913, Page 13

REFORM GOVERNMENT SUPPORTED.

SPECIAL LEGISLATION USELESS. In Aits issue of November 13th the Sydney. "Daily Telegraph" had an article on-the strike, as follows:— The New Zealand striko has been mado additionally interesting by tho discussion of it in the House of Representatives, reported yesterday, and the naive suggestions made oy Sir Joseph Ward, apparently with a view to representing the Opposition as bqmg on both sides as far as possible..-Seeing that'a recognised "Red Fed." leader had the party's support in winning a by-election the cither, day, that attitude may not need much explaining. - .What is surprising -and amusing is. tne * innocence with which a veteran'of aflairs like Sir Joseph Ward -propounds legislation as~a panacea. A Bill should be rushed through "in the interests cf all classes of• the community, 1 ' he aigues; providing that there should be no' strike or lock-out without a secret ballot. No doubt there are cases in which a secret ballot' wbUld avert a strike, as where the staider majority is in danger "of being swayed by a hot-haaued minority, or hesitates to express the peaceable sentiments that/ really possess it. Generally, considered, it is a possible. safeguard' such as we class among the things that can do no harm, and may do some good. But, in tic first place, it-is unlikely that it would prove a cure for the inflamed condition which exists in Now Zealand now, and, in the next, we know that among such -unions as the miners' a secret vote is generally taken and very often goes in favour, of a strike. Again, Sir Joseph propounds a scheme" for setting up a special tribunal to formulate an agreement and, if that faUs, another tribunal of three judges, whose decision.should be "final and binding." On whom, in the name of:common sense? The strike has had its* futile.- special tribunal in the form of a* conference nn'der.tho aegis of the Government: If Sir Joseph Ward has any reason to believe that the strikers would turn to at-the-behest of three judges, he must know which their whole conduct entirely :belies. When 'Mr. Massey, the Prime Minister,, retorted that "no legislation could compel 'men-to work or compel employers to employ men" he stated a truism which exuberant faith in tho new-idea "oA*erlooked when arbitration laws-were being passed in Australia and New "Zealand—for tvhat: is. their question hoAv may -bo ours at any tame, which'is what makes the whole affair as interesting on one side of the, Tasman Sea as the other. * This is not to imply any belittlement of the law in general, but to record the oft-demon-•strated fact that in this,particular relation the law cannot be effectively enforced, upon largo sections,of the community* scarcely moro amenable to it than tho" Chinese are to modern constitutional government. And it is in recognition of so much,that the New Zealand Parliament has made striking only conditionally an offence, which ineffect amounts to making it optional.. In the throes of such a struggle as this tho law should be invoked to keep order arid preserve-life and property; as it •should also he so far as it applies to the conflict itself, unless it is to be regarded as a dead letter. The forces of authority should be employed to the full extent - of necessity, as they apparently are being used to check what are alleged to be seditious utterances and incitements to violence. But no emergency legislation will compel peace when a strike is in full blast, and a hastily Tun-up tribunal pretending to exercise .final and binding powers would be m danger of turning out--a judicial joke. J h «?- W », a in industrialAconfiictat which the only course, however «*»£**& » that of "leaving the parties to. fight .it out;.and that is what is. happemng m New Zealand now. mitted that -many ;unions have shoAvn sense and in<Kferati©n » >■ como oat in aB-WW. .strike, but the Mg fact in the sta-tien is «g* *£ oc-nno-ity has taken the thing m &_? 25r fe r-soltiteiv working towo£*__to be the.ona .way «* g*Po»f SSSSSi of exhaustion" is probably.true as * ar as the strikers are Bntrt i 7 they who are exhaust-v": themsetres _n_ Y+Ulc_rcelv in human nature that Ac $uV_? S* surrender to them to sale them from the conseq.uenoes of thofr ow™ deliberate persistence xn te so do io would be to. place the f at the marcy of any band of men w_o

nh n <* to tebe to- the industrial waroath at any time. As for the geamen's fntention to strike, that position wiU which, hoover, it has been understood that the New Zealand seamen were enjoying comparatively very good nr/irkin2 terms. stiii, the machinery for arrfngins these matters i s all there, and if workers will not am rt the public has nothing to do but rally to its own defence.