The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1910. THE SHEARING TROUBLE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 909, 31 August 1910, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1910. THE SHEARING TROUBLE.

That the dispute botween the shearers and the sheep-owners would be settled in some way or other has been the firm belief of everybody who has watched the course of events during the last few months. Mr. Millar informed the House yesterday that the points of disagreement are to be referred, at the request of both parties, to a special tribunal composed of three Conciliation Commissioners. We have little doubt that an agreement will be arrived at, but it is highly questionable whether, in view of the attitude adopted by the shearers' organisation, that will be altogether a satisfactory event. The parties aro • not meeting with open minds, prepared to abide by the issue of a free con- ' ference. So far as the sheep-owners are concerned, the conference,will be free enough, since employers of all kinds seem to have made up their minds that whatever decision may be given, however it runs against their sense of justice, they must "grin and bear it." The shearers, however, go before the Commissioners pledged to reject anything less than their demands. They are prepared to abide by'' the decision provided it pleases them.. To call a conference arranged on this basis an instrument of conciliation is to give to conciliation a significance that it has never '.- contained before.

We have no present intention, however, of going into that aspect of the dispute. What we desire to (Sail attention to is the extraordinary measure to which resort has been made in order to effect a settlement. There is no provision in the Arbitration Act for the submission of a dispute to the three Conciliation Commissioners sitting as a singlo tribunal. Mr. Millar himself admitted yesterday that this is "a most unusual procedure," "but," he added, "some special steps had to be taken." To secure a settlement, no doubt, special steps were very necessary indeed. The shearers announced that they would not accept less than a certain named minimum; their secretary insulted the Judge of the Arbitration Court. And since "peace at any price" is now the motto of the Government, it would have been surprising if the Minister for Labour had not decided to aim at that sort of peace even at thu prica of setting the Arbitration Act aside. For that is what this special conference amounts to. The Act for which it .had for many years been claimed that it was a preserver of industrial peace,'and .iiat was in -1908 amended: in, the. hope that that bogus claim might be made genuine, stands forth as a failure. Its utmost resources of conciliation are inadequate to settle the shearing dispute. Its authority melts away in the presence of real trouble. No doubt the sheep-owners, rather than incur tho trouble of arranging for free labour to shear their ', flocks, will agree to the shearers' demands. And no doubt the friends of the Act will then rise up' and affirm that their pet measure has prevented a dreadful crisis ;n our biggest industry. But .it will nevertheless be clear beyond all question that the settlement ' has been a settlement under freedom of contract—that the boasted specific for all the ills of industry has meekly crept aside while men- and masters have struck a bargain on their own account. The Court will ratify the agreement, of course, but its, position and authority will obviously, be no greater than' those of the cook who is summoned from tho kitchen to witness a deed.'