OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 164, 23 December 1926, Page 4

OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

THE ARBITRATION COURT. The doom of the Arbitration Court has been sounded in certain quarters, and certain it is that grave dissatisfaction has been expressed in its decisions. The Court was originally set up to arbitrate in industrial disputes, and for a period of years did excellent work. It is contended, however, to-day that it has become more of a wage-fixing and conditions-fix-ing body than a peaceful arbitrator. On the one hand Labour circles demand the retirement of the President, while on the other hand employers protest that the Court has fixed wages with a total disregard to the volume of production. Where two parties to a dispute are unable to agree, arbitration is very desirable, but complaint is made that the Court aims at maintaining arbitrarily a fixed and unfluctuating standard of living while unstable conditions prevail. Another ground of complaint by employers is that many of the awards prohibit piece work, and assert that the Court should never have had the power to do so. They point to the United States, where very high wages are paid, and where the standard of living is higher than in any other country in the world, contending that the industrial and commercial success of the United States is due largely to piece work, for Americans pay by results and pay for efficiency, whereas in New Zealand the efficients and the incompetents are on a dead level.—Wanganui Herald.