THE FARMERS & THE ARBITRATION ACT

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 66, 10 December 1921, Page 12

THE FARMERS & THE ARBITRATION ACT

Sir—T am filled with “amazement” like a. bride at the termination of the marriage ceremony over the decisions of the Judge of the Arbitration Court in the shearers and slaughtermen’s a ' var(l J and wonder where he thinks sufficiont monev is to come from to provide the wages ho is fixing. I suppose the Act ho is called upon to administer takes no thought of, or makes no provision for, considering the circumstances of the employer, or his ability to pay these wages, and lawyer-like, he ignores them, but this only shows tho absurdity of appointing a lawyer to preside over what was evidently intended to bo, and ought to be purely, a Court of equity. Everyone now knows that tho increased cost of living is mainly brought about by the Arbitration Court itself, which al-

fects ihe primary producers even to A greater extent than employers in town, as they usually provide loud for their employees, but this appears to be forgotten or ignored by His Honour. Certain it is that the producer cannot continue to provide coin of tho i-eufm"“fo pay post-war wages out of about half pre-war prices, which shoui" be tho ruling factor and not the percentage increase in the cost of living and the only alternative, if Home prices for meat and butter and cheese, and wool are not largely increased, is to. revert to barter and give the sheepshearer, saj', half the number of sheep he has just shorn for taking tho wool off the flock, or the carcasses of those the slaughtermen have slaughtered to pay for their services, for it appeal’s to me that the monej’ value of wool and mutton would work out about the rate of wage the Court is fixing. But what a travesty of justice it is to allow such a statute, with all it». panoply, to remain a day longer upon. ■ tho Statute Book, when wo find that ths Judges’ awards are daily flouted by xorkinen if his decisions should ihappetE to them To Hie most minuteextent. The employer, on the other hand, is harassed .and worried by an army of. inspectors if even a slight and unintentional infringement of the Act takes place, while the workman can drive a carriage and four through Act with impunity, and one seldom ecea a conviction recorded against them. A few may bo fined, but are the fines all paid? If the circumstances-of the employer are outside the order of reference in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, they should be promptly inserted, and if it is illegal to do anything in restraint of- trade in respect of bu/ir or other commodities named in any Act, so also should it be in regard to cement, as His Honour the Acting-Chief Justice has just found the Board of Trade guilty of, buf sis the word cement has been omitted, any Act in restraint of trade in this commodity is therefore not illegal. What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander, but the better course to pursue would be to give both the Arbitration Court and tho Board of Trade a ' short , drop” and allow us to forget about them altogether.—l am, etc., A PERPLEXED PRODUCER.