THE ARBITRATION ACT

Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 31

THE ARBITRATION ACT

THE RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION.

(From Our Own Correspondent ) PAEROA, February 12

In the oourse of his speech at Karanga hake this afternoon Sir Joseph Ward referred in an interesting manner to the Arbitration Act. It could, he said, be improved, but none the less it had done away with the old system of the strength of men against the strength of money. Under that system only one class suffered — the workers and their nixes and children. A similar stale of things vould be our lot here if

in the future we repealed from our statute bcok.K that important piece of work which enabled disputes to be settled by a process of law, and provided, in the meantime, against any los> of production in the particulcu mdustiy affected. Only within the last few days tins country had been asked to help the men who had struck work in the snipping tiadc at Sunderland. Thirty thousand of them were now out of work, and nearly starving. Those men and their wives could have bocn s-aved if they had in the O'd Country such a law as our Aibit. anon Act. Tie old sjstem was baibarouj. cruel, and cowardly, and in o\cy count rv where it existed the men alvvajs got the mow. It was impossible to eonipaie conditions m the Old Land with those in Now Zealand. On the Continent of Euiope — indeed, m all the Continental countnes — fhey had to resort to anarchy to impress upon the people their desire to obtain amelioration of laws. Tnis was a very improper method for anyone to resort to. The Prime Minister's address in the Gi&mng, w .as given before &i au-di-ence vi Inch filled the Criterion Theatre was largely upon the lines of his policy speerh at Auckland. He dealt, with the prosperity of the Dominion and the legislation of lecent year*, particularly referring to the land laws, taxation, and tenure. He quoted figuies in support of a contention that the. tariff alterations had benefited everybody in the country. He touched on the questions of the protection of infant life, immigration, and finance (herein taking the opportunity of comparing conditions in Now Zealand with th se in America today). He made an interesting digression on the subject of defence, loading up to it by a reference to a white New Zealand. In New Zealand, he said, the people wanted to ensure for themselves a white race. They wanted to prevent a mixture, particularly with Eastern races. Yet, what were the facts? Within a few days' sail of New Zealand there wore millions of Chinese and mil lions of Japanese. It was the former wo had to look to. The Chinese weie bcin^ educated to-day in the arts and sciences and warfare, and in the latter by men \ilu wanted to use them in the future for their own aggrandisement. We had the shadow of the yellow peril over New Zealand. Supposing the time should come in future years when the c ducal ed Chinese were able to shoulder a gun and take their position in the field on equal terms with other nations, could we expect a handful of people in New Zealand to effectually defend our shores against them? This was one of the dangers on the horizon to-day. We must recognise that ifc was our bounden duty to insure against it should such a time of danger come, and there were evidences that it might come. (ievmany's policy for a long time had been to build ships of war to be able to take part against Great Britain should occasion arise. Why had the British Admiralty refused to agree to a reduction in the Naval Estimates? It was because Germany was carrying out this building programme in connection with her navy. This was a menace to Great Britain, and so a policy of building two warships to one was forced upon the people of Britain as a mere aot of future defence and safety. We should never have a naval engagement on the New Zealand coast. The future engagement would be in the Mediterranean perhaps, or in the East of Irad.ia perhaps, but when it did come let us hope that England won. If Germany were to win it would mean that not only Groat Britain, but every portion of the British Empire, would be beaten. The pulses that were moving in the different empires compelled us in these young countries not to neglect matters. When the people of the Domin'on heard that the naval agreement, under which New Zealand was paying £40,000 a year to the British navy, had to be increased, they must remember that this payment was not being made on sentimental gTounds; but they must try to realise that there was property here valued at several hundred millions at stake. As the people would' insure their houses, the Go\ eminent, as a common sense one, mast insure aga.'nst any foreign Power coming in and taking our personal property. The Biitish na\y \\B6 our first line of defence, and British pluck, courage, and tradition would come in there. If the last defence was swept away every man in the Dominion. e\on in the event of the beating of the British fleet in the Mediterranean or in the East, would tight on to their last man to preserve their country. — (Applause.) Referring to the question of railways, Sir Joseph said that during his present tour he would give the cost per mile for the upkeep of our railways. He made the assertion that the Dominion was spending more in this direction than any other country in the world. This was because the Government considered that nothing must be allowed to be dangerous to life or limb in connection with them. If there was any fault to find with the railways, he con-idered it was that we were spending too much on them. He could with one stroke of the pen, if it wore a proper thing to do, ensure to the people of this country a lettirn of 10 per cent, per year on rhe railways, but he would not do "it ; and if he were to be asked to do it. he would say: "Let someone eke do it." If the Government policy was morelv to get money out of the people, it could do so instead of handing back a large percentage to thorn every jear, as it was doing in the shape of reduced rates, etc. If it wanted to take 10 per cent, out of the railways it would be necessary to increase the ratee of haulage of wool, timber, coal, meat, sheep, and every other article of produce, and also the travelling rates for men and women. That would be looked upon in the eyos of some people as a masterly stroke of policy. He said that it would be ruinous. When the Main Trunk railway was opened Paeroa- people would be able to travel through to Wellington more cheaply than the same distance could be travelled over in any other part of the world.— (Applause.) At the close of his address Mr Forrest (chairman of the Paeroa Branch of the Liberal and Labour Federation) moved a vote of thanke to Sir Joseph and a vote of confidence in him as Prime Minister, arid in the Government. This was seconded by Mr Cock, and carried by acclamation. Cheers were gjven for Sir Joseph and Lady Ward.