The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1926. THE ARBITRATION COURT.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 March 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1926. THE ARBITRATION COURT.

The appointment by the Government of Mr A. 1.. .Monteith ;i,s workers’ representative oil the Court of Arbitration, icmarks the Dunedin ‘'Times,’’ lias signalised the termination of a contest marked by an unusual amount of plain-spaking on behalf of the two candidates for the position. Mr Monteith had the support of the Alliance of Labour ns against Air Hiram Hunter, who bad represented the workers on the court for the past three years. -Evidently the majority of the industrial unions paid more heed to the opposition to Mr Hunter than to his vigorous vindication of his attitude as a member of the Court. The ballot among the unions registered under the Aft being in favour of .Mr Monteith, that constituted a recommendation to the Government which has very properly acted upon it. 'flic ballot would have been reduced to a vain and meaningless procedure if the recommendation by the unions hud not been accepted. Yet, if one tiling is more clear than another, it is that Mr Hunter owies his defeat hygely to the fact of bis refusal to associate himself with the Alliance of Labour in its antagonism to the arbitration system. Three years ago, when appointed a mender of the Court, lu» had the support of the Alliance of Labour. But he disappointed that body, because, as a member of the Court, he failed to turn its precincts into a. Liar-garden. He failed to disclose that disposition for the creation of “scenes” which the Alliance evidently expects in the workers’ representative on the Court. The Wellington “Times” in referring to the same subject remarked that not unexpectedly. Mr A. iL. Montieth lias been elooti'id to replace Mr H. Hunter as the. workers’ representative on the Arbitration Court. Mr Montieth is a fortunate man. Dislodged from a comfortable billet in the legislature, lie finds himself in a more highly-paid office without very much loss of time. What a great asset, it is to possess so many influential friends! A set was made against- Mr Hunter ostensibly on the ground that he was lacking in hackbone when it came to a fight for the workers. Presumably the Court, and general pub]ie. may expect from the new Jove real thunder and lightning. We have been invited, by implication, to listen-jin in advance to Air Monteith’s impassioned and biting

leloquonee in defence of the intei'csts of the proletariat. The Hunter milk-and-water method is to make way for the Monteith mailed-glove system. We shall await results with unusual curiosity mingled with scepticism, knowing Mr Montieth’s sponsors and suspecting the reason given for his nomination. Ho was labelled by an organisation which at heart has no love for the court; rather the reverse, indeed. The Alliance of Labour is overtly or covertly an exponent of diroet action. It conciliates with a. chib. That such a body should lie able thus to influence tins composition of the Court is rather a sorry jest. That the change "ill give the workers more than their exrepresentative could secure for them is a proposition not to be taken seriously. Mr Monteith may display the vertebrae of a rhinoceros or a dromedary, but that will fail to suffice if the case is not good enough to succeed on its own merits.