DOMINION POLITICS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9174, 18 June 1908, Page 8

DOMINION POLITICS.

. - 'DR. FINDLAY ON LABOUR f r..;' * QUESTIONS. Per Press Association. ' .Wellington, June 17. Ke.Hon. Dr. Findlay delivered a 1 Bpo.cli in-Wellington to-night supplementing his recent Wanganui speech and replying to criticism thereon and - f ., the assertion that sweating had been by the Factories Act, not the Arbitration Act. He pointed out that the wages of tailoresses and factory hands were raised by the Arbitration Court years before the passing of the Factories Act of 1901. • During thirteen years there had been eighteen strikes —all really small and short-lived, and only twelve of these ’>ad been illegal. In these strikes less '„ n one per cent, of the total . 9 earners had been involved, '■ .le the days of idleness due to lain were few. In Britain, during a decade i 20 per cent, of the wotkers were at some time or other difsctly involved in labour conflict, Viand the average days of idleness were ,39 per man. - D r . Findlay repeated and amplified his argument at Wanganui that the increase in the cost of living was due only in a very small degree to the Arbitration Act, but to enchanced prices of foodstuffs in foreign markets, and the great increase in unimproved valne of land and the cost of -building material. ..’■'"The speaker admitted that the Oou- ' Coiliation Boards had entirely failed fto achieve the results anticipated by \ r r Reeves. When the parties gave \trying to settle disnptes they gaye indeed having any genuine dis- • jutes, but worked the Act for the a v ; sole of wage and labour • regulation. Conciliation really, had 'Vir no place, and the Boards became a • kind of fifth wheel in a coach.'Some effective method of enforcing fines short of imprisonment was urgently required, and he thought the provision in the Act preventing yictimising needed amendment. .. Dr. Findlay quoted statistics, compiled from income tax i gureSi showing that the various tra' ling and..industrial concerns are-- assessed oh ■ . £7,775,579 but allowand * for interest and rent would these profits, inasmuch; as.’ least £40,000,000 was invested to ~ produce these profits. He did ne c assert that* the great, body of workers were re> : ceiving ' wages which justified ho increase, but, unless more- wealth was produced by increased effort and co-operation on the’part of both- efnV ployers and employed, there was not Tr ‘ n 4i|P roS P ßo *’ of any marked rise in nejgeneral level of the workers’ ‘ then asked what was tjbe\ Arbitration Court in : j angw. H®' dismissed the i V[‘principle as imposf vn ,r In bis belief if oompn?sps®*. . .Vbitr'ation'was to continue to.be a ■agif-regulator, the best standard for guidance, was a double ’ or .rather •rimary and a supplementary stanfd.'i The primary standard should the needs of the worker, and e wase baaed on it should be not a \re subsistence wage , butpue which <’ . aid allow for all; conventional [a sencies essential toA worker's seif ■■s fjnect. The needs wage .should be ; JL demented by an exertion wage, i , iding for extra payment for work. The practice of paying I, A»mium wage to on&ot.twpopera-; ’ ,in order to force .thS pace had rightly •.•'trad’d' -Juni&is, but it had never been tried--jnndei; a compulsory ' Arbitration Act; with power to prevent abuses. _ Where •a" progressive wage for individual f $ workers was impracticable l a collec-’ >*? ’tive progressive wage could; be paid., To give all workers —fast Or ..slow, skilful or careless —the sathe payment • tended to degrade labour..- •...■Tbe’. aystern,.' he suggested, could, not injure, the workers, and the employers could have no reason to complain. \ , -... ‘ 4. resolution of confidence in . the ’ -Government was carried at tbe-'.oon-elusion of Dr. speech. :. • .V --.-r ' - : - ■■ MR FOWLDS ON THE OPPOSI- , tion; ■' Auckland, June 17. (V- M jf i’owlds. interviewed to-day, denies, that any of his speeches war - ranted the inference —as continually asserted hy Mr Massey—that it was his (the Minister’s) opinion that no choice remained for the country but Socialism or the Single Tax. • “The countryhu.y,coAtiqued “gave a pretty clear indication of its opinion of Masseyism'.Afe.Tnapeka the other day. There Mt Massey, had a candidate backed, by a very complete organisation. The. Government chose a candidate, but the seat-was won by a gentleman more. Radical, than the Government candidate, whp. at the same time declared hiinself ; a Government supporter. Thus,:', in a ■ purely country electorate', AMr \Maar eey’s candidate was only able-‘to •command two out of every seven votes polled. Another ominous portent for Mr Massey is to be found in the epidemic which seems to have set in amongst the few followers he has in the present Parliament. Every other day lately we have seen an announcement in the press that Mr So-and-So, a member of the OpposL tion, had decided not to offer himself for re-election. If this continues till the end of the session there willhe no one left but Mr Massey and one or two of his lieutenants, and,, possibly some of them may have tp retire involuntarily when the eleor tion comes off. j f , THE ASHBURTON'^EAT. ‘ Ashburton, June 17. 'Mr'.W. Nosworthy, sheepfarmer, of jAnama, to-day announced his candidature as,a straight-out Oppositionist for the Ashburton seat This brings the total number of candidates announced to six, the other five being Messrs F.-R. Flatman. Government . nominee ;v Henry Davis, Mayor of k ‘■'Ashburtcm,'Liberal; J. D. Gobbe, Ashbtjri^n^, Labour League ; W. ,S. Geraldine, Oppositionist; and* J.- -M. Twomey, Temuka, who field as a stern opponent Mt- Flatman. Mr David Jones, of 'has also been approached, £ alfid/ is‘considering the question.