LABOUR AND THE LAW

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 12, 9 October 1907, Page 4

LABOUR AND THE LAW

The resignation of Mr. Justice Hood, the President of the Industrial Court of Appeal in Victoria, is on many accounts of much greater importance than usually attaches to the retirement of a Judge who is sick and. tired of unfair criticism. The events leading up to his resignation have already been retailed in cable messages during recent weeks. As I'resident of the Court of Appeal, ho received for hearing a dispute over bakers' wages, which had previously been adjudicated upon by a Wages Board, and his judgment reduced the wages of journeymen from £2 14s. to £2 10s. per week. Instead of accepting the judgment of the Court, the bakers took up arms, and, after a brief campaign of indignation, in the course of which Mr. Justice Hood was denounced in vigorous language, they went on strike, and last week forced the employers to pay the'highcr wage. The resignation of the Judge is regarded as a natural protest against the doctrine that in an industrial dispute that is referred to arbitration the verdict must always be given in_ favour.of the workers. It supplies just the last touch of emphasis wanted to the anomaly of an industrial arbitra-

tion system that exacts from one party obedience to its awards, while leaving tho other party free to disregard those awards at its pleasure.' Our own Government is proposing to introduce the Industrial Council's system here, and it is not unlikely that the Arbitration Court may reduce the wages fixed by a Council. Fortunately, the New Zealand Court of Appeal has decided that the law is able to pursue to the very end the penalisation of a breach of award, and we may here compliment, tho Government upon having, during our own strike troubles, taken a strong stand against the reduction of the Act to the waste paper that it would certainly become if its penalties could not be enforced. Supposing that two men fall into dispute, one of them being armed with a club, and resolve to settle the matter by reference to a third party, and supposing;that one of them, dissatisfied with the arbitrator's verdict, falls upon the other with his. weapon, and bludgeons him into concessions, can it be said that a fair and just settlement has been provided for? That is the position in Victoria, and it is a position that would assuredly develop in New Zealand if clubbing were permitted. For Victoria, the lesson of Judge Hood's protest, should be the need for protecting the system of arbitration. For New Zealand the incident will serve as a reminder of the need for insisting on evenhanded justice in our industrial legislation. Nor is that reminder unnecessary, for with the impending changes in our system of industrial arbitration, there will come a. novelty in the way of provision for revised awards, and the possibility, therefore, of workers beaten on appeal.