The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1907. COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2239, 16 November 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1907. COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.

It is exceedingly significant that at the very outset of wliat promises to bo one of the most disastrous strikes experienced in the Commonwealth for some time the only .practical suggestion for a settlement that has come forward has .been that of the New South Wales Premier who declares that unless tho dispute is settled forthwith ho will arrange a special sitting of Parliament in order to pass a bill whereby tho matter must bo settled by arbitration. In other words he has been forced into tlie position of accepting the principle that has been recognised in this COU-Tl try for 3U □ tvy —yw o . ytainrty

compulsory arbitration. Our own system is far from perfect and tho slaughtermen’s strike of last year together with otliei’defects that hare long been obvious have caused the Government to come forward with some radical amendments, but .the main principle remains undisturbed, namely, that no particular sections of society have the right to take such action as will menace the welfare of the whole. Under ordinary circumstances the Newcastle strike will not only harm the employers and employees whose disagreements have brought it about, but it will paralyse many industries throughout the Commonwealth, and will inflict untold misery in many a hundred homes that have had no share whatever in causing tlio trouble. Theoretically it is well enough to say that an employer cannot he compelled to keep his factory running .under conditions that .are distasteful to him or that a workman cannot ho compelled to work if the terms of his occupation do not meet with his approval, and' individually the theory may properly be carried into practice, but when" through combined action suek an attitude causes .the dislocation of an entire industry the State is fulfilling its proper functions by stepping in and insisting that arbitration shall be resorted .to ill order to bring about a settlement. T-lio position is, of course, one of great difficulty, and even in New Zealand after a lengthy trial the system of compulsory arbitration failed to the extent that it did not prevent a strike in the case iust referred to. What it did do, however, was .to show conclusively that while a man could not he compelled to work against his will he could bo punished for refusing to work under such circumstances that his action could reasonably be said to have assisted to .cause a strike and in this vind’eation the Government had the entire support of tho community, Moreover, it is a remarkable commentary ill favor of the system of compulsory a Kbit ration that during the lengthy period it has boon in force in New Zealand only one strike of iany real magnitude has occurred. It is sincerely to be hoped that Premier Wade will prove sufficiently strong to carry out his expressed intention of compelling the opposing forces in tho Nwhistle strike to agree to arbitrate over their differences and that such arbitration will result in a «needy and durable settlement. Unfortunately .the period when a strike is actually in progress is by no means a propitious time for approaching the contesting parties but it should bo particularly opportune for gaining the support of the public for such a principle. After all, strikes form .the crudest possible method of settling an industrial dispute and any community which makes no definite attempt to prevent them cannot he said to have made a marked advance in modern civilisation.

AN UNDESIRABLE IMMIGRANT Sir Joseph Ward is to be congratulated upon his cuteness in devising .a means that bids fair to solve the troublesome question of Chinese immigration so far as the Dominion is concerned. In t-lic future

it will avail tho enterprising Celestial little that lvo can glibly chatter away to tlio Customs Officer at Wellington :—“Mo alLitoo; mo welly good Olistian, mo pay poll tax” ; ho must also bo nblo to sit down .and road at Bight one hundred words of the King’s Engjhish. To usoia sporting plirnso “it is all Lombard Street to an orange” that tlio test will floor him and 'tlio proverbial slimness of tho Oriental will scarcely onalblo him to evado its conditions. Hotter oven tllian a heavy poll .tax is tills .now' provision. In tho past many a Chinaman has .crept into tlio country without having paid tlio hundred pounds imposed by .tlio legislature. Tho various passports have been used over and over again in defianco of tho Government officials who are powerless to identify the wooden countenances with tlio bland smiles that pass before them. But now' a cliango is to come over tlio scene. Not all the smiles .that could bo collected amongst the 400 miLLlons who comprise tlio Chinese Empiro or the multitude of iimoconfc assurances of “mo no saveo” with which tho wily celestial has been wont to confound over-iinqui-sitivo officials in the past will advance him one foot on Dominion territory. He must in cricket parlance “compilo liis century,” not falling oven at tho 99tli word, or 1 ‘back to China”ho goes by the same boat that brought him. There aro certainly all tho elements of many a little comedy in tho now Bill but, viewed from tlio serious aspect, tho Premier seems certainly to liavo hit upon a happy plan to keep out tho undesirable yellow man. From the educated Chinaman wo have nothing to fear; if he chooses to oomo to this country' wo should extend to him tho same facilities for conducting business and tlio same hospitaiblo treatment which is accorded foreigners from other lands, but with tho Asiatic coolie tho position is entirely different. Wo can afford to take no chances in regard to the wholesale importation of cheap Chinese labor with its consequent racial problems to this fair land, and a Bill which will grant ns practical prohibition without contravening rtflie accepted international obligations of tlio British Empire should have very general support.

IMPRISONED BOOKMAKERS. At tho time tlio new Gaming Bill was introduced to tho House of Representatives wo drew attention to tlio arrant hypocrisy of a people who declare it illegal for a man to make a bet in the street or to risk a shilling on a game of cards in an unebartered club room, whilst it habitually ' gambles away a substantial portion of its revenue through the State legalised totalisator. Tho position has since been emphasised by the action of a magistrate in Christchurch, who has sentenced a number of bookmakers to imprisonment for having trespassed oil the Riccarton racecourse. A peculiar phaso of the case is tho fact that the •racecourse iu question is not private property, but is in reality a public reserve, in connection with which the Canterbury Jockey Club has been granted certain privileges. There is surely little either' of democracy or even bare justice ill a state of affairs which permits a club to bar any member of the community who is willing to pay tho usual admission fee from entering public grounds simply because it is surmisod that once inside ho w-ill engage in betting outside of the “tote.” For this offence 26 bookmakers have been sentenced to imprisonment, and little wonder that there is an outcry over the matter, and that a petition is being sent to Parliament asking for a remission of sentence. The real reason for the persecution of the individuals referred to is not because they' trespassed, but because they dared to enter into rivalry' with tho State gambling machine. 4V© hold no brief for those who engage in betting on horse-racing, for wo consider that the deplorable extent to which this is being carried on has put it in tho position of a national vice, which, if allowed to go unchecked, will seriously menace the future of the Dominion, but we contend that the measures at present taken to cope with the evil are entirely inadequate and miserably hypocritical. For the three days of the Canterbury meeting close on £IOO,OOO was ■passed through the State gambling machine, and under tho circumstances it is nothing short of tyranny' to treat as criminals of the worst tyipe men whose only crime is that they, too, have offered their services to that section of the betting public which is not satisfied with tbp daylightrobbery tactics of tjio totalisator. Tho bookmaker loses sometimes — tho totalisator never.