ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1798, 10 July 1913, Page 6

ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

The debute onrthe-Addreas-in-Ruply was Continued.

Tho Hon. C. M. LUKE,,proceeding with' his speech, advocated tho introduction* of light railways for tho country. districts. ■He said that if the Government could not "borrow tha' money for construction on iadvantageous,..terms, ..private. enterprise Should bo . allowed to step in. The Hon. J..BARE said tho Hon'. Mr. 'ODuthie had used isolated cases as '•tratioris of .Labour's, conduct.. ..One of. the causes of industrial trouble ,was that .the spirit of agreements -was spmetimas not 'kept—loopholes 'were " sought—and, " of course, wliin the agreement -expired the whole question, had to be gone over again. Tho majority of employers stuck faithfully by .the agreements, but, unfortunately, wns H a minority which was quito.-unfaiiv- In-Wellingto'n {£11912 sf'ihxlus'triiU' .'iTiattera. received Consideration; Forty-five' were • settled by'- the - themselves, eight were partially settled, and only one was referred in toto. to the Court.' ' In' Auckland' the* figures were 397 17, 7, a. Take into consideration that there wei'e 307 unions with a largo total .membership, and.the disturbances would 'not.be,,r£mfdod..as vctv great. He objected to .the Action of "about three unions . being. tho action of the wholo of iiibonTvinvNew .Zealand. — .

-The Hon. J. DUTIIIE, who moved the 'Address-in-Reply, then replied. An hon. member, ho said, had made a suggestion regarding Captain Hals'sy's recent observations on Picton's value as a naval dock. Ho thought that the idea of having a dock thero was . worthy-of careful consideration. 'J' 1 " " ' '

Tho Hon. 11. D. Bell: Hear, hear. The Hon. Mr. Duthio touchcd upon the Hon. C. 11. Luke's suggestion that light-, lin-2 railtvays should be built, and observed that ho understood that tho Government intended giving facilities for private enterprise to undertake such works whep the State did not soj'its way to take them ■up. Dealing with a phase of tho labour question, tho IJon. /Air. Duthio spoke against preference to.unionists. The wholo of the community was being driven into unions, and as soon as a man got'thcTo lie ceased to bo free, ho lost His selfrespect, and sanlc to drudgery. There wero a good many labour men who did not want to go to extremes. Tho goodwill at the back-ground was the solution of tho .problem. ' This concluded the debate, and the Ad-dress-in-lieply was agreed to. At 9.20 p.m. tho Council adjourned till July 22.