THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19160, 17 November 1927, Page 11

THE ARBITRATION ACT.

TO THE BDITOB OJ THB PBISi. Sir—ln your isue of to-day, there is a, statement that it is probable that when the Arbitration Amendment Bill comes before the House, from the Labpur Bills Committee, it will be postponed. If so, it shows that the union secretaries and the Employers' Federations have been wielding .the big stick over the heads of the powers that be, and correspondingly will let down the primary producers of the Dominion, who saw in the Bill as originally brought before the House, some measure of relief from a Court that has been a drag on the genuine progress of this Dominion, notwithstanding all the diatribes of Judge Frazer against the critics of the Arbitration Act as administered at the present time. It is well to note.when the Act was first placed on the Statute Book there was no preference to Unionists. Piece.,...work was allowed, and as a rule men did a day's work for a day's pay. That has:, all gone by the board. What have we in its place? Lesser output, increased costs, a coterie of agitators, a sympathetic Court, who has encouraged them to bring them all in, even down to the farm labourer. The Court stands condemned, because it can only act for a section of the community, and that section has to bear practically all the added costs to the sheltered industries, while the man on the land has to grouse and graft, and all he gets is a few words of optimism from the Prime Minister that prices for exports may improve.. And yet, each year millions of added debts are being heaped upon the thrifty classes of this Dominion, for it must be borne in mind that money thus borrowed means a yearly increase of indebtedness.' Is it too late for the farmers of the South Island to bestir themselves and support their members to vote for the amendments as originally placed before the House? Yea, and even something?' more: Its abolition would be preferable even to the honest workers of the. Dominion, —Yours, etc., A.B. November 16th.