LABOUR AND LEGISLATION.

Shannon News, 8 July 1927, Page 2

LABOUR AND LEGISLATION.

W.E.A. LECTURE.. The usual weekly meeting of the Levin branch of the W.E.A. was held ir. the Band room, Bath Street, last evening. Mr W. G. Bishop presiding. The lecturer pointed out that those who are interested in social problems —especially as these affeet labour matters, should not rest content when labour is safeguarded, but should also be iutei-erred in seeing that the employer is granted justice. One-sided legislation can never permanently satisfy. Again and again we have seen employers and private citizens forced to appeal to. the Government for protection to life and property during a labour dispute. Labour ultimately gains nothing by acts of violence; the employer gains nothing by inciting to retaliation. All sorts of laws for the regulation of employer and employee are on the statute books —far more than stand to our credit—for it' seems that each added law is just another evidence that men must be forced to do the right thing. The kernel of the social problem as it affects' labour, lies in the ; cowardly toleration of defiance of law by both sides. Aftyr all, a strike, whatever be the inciting cause, is just an organised disregard of the common rights and property of the bulk of the people—the majority of whom nave not the faintest idea of what the trouble is all about. All that they know is. that ultimately- they must pay the bill. Every strike, every act of anarchy or rebellion, is just another- proof that the Government is powerless to protect its citizens against these -things. TWO DIVERGENT VIEWS. One section desires to remedy existing social and economic ills by hasty, ill-digested “short cuts” to a hypothetical Garden of Eden, where the serpent of error has no lodging place. The other view-has its adherents,-who be lieve just as strongly in justice, equity, equality, have just as high ideals, and are just as solicitous for humanity. The difference exists largely in the rate of speed and the methods to be adopted. All tluse must take due account of certain materiel and economic laws, and wln-n all these have been complied with, then the experience of", men —history— must be studied. ...Ijtie' vexed question of a minimum wage!?.is a case in point.Ostensibly it levels..‘tip—does it.'not'in practice level down”?" We believe that there are more medium to good workmen than there are poor workmen. The few poor men brought up to a minimum wage do not compensate for the main’ good men who are reduced; for the minimum wage becomes the maximum verv speedily. A WORLD MOVEMENT OF GREAT

FORCES. The problems of our-own .country are but symptomatic of sinister world movements, many of which are desirous of reaching 'solution by quick action methods. According, to some of these, industry is to be dominated by force, alert to commit crimes under the pretext, of fancied, wrongs, "blind- to all restraints of law apd order. Against all. such the. people must set their faces and insist that the Government must maintain law ana order. • The- issue ought to be plain to all who are not deliberately closing their minds to facts. A great and prosperous nation grows up under a system Avhieh- safeguards Enright of every citizen to acquire property and to utilise every legitimate opportunity for advancement. The laws of man cannot controvert the laws of nature in this particular universe. The rankest agitator, equally with the least useful person in the community, can produce only one blade of grass where two grew before, but we must listen and follow the men whose aim, materially, mentally, morally, is to cause two blades to grow where only one could grow before.

NEW ZEALAND LABOUR LAWS. The lecturer dealt in detail with the principal labour legislation of New Zea-

land: The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, tlie Factories Act, Shops and Offices Act, Apprentices Act, Wages Protection Acts, Compensation Act, etc. A criticism of the practical working of the first named Act was offered. This Act provides for one representative of the employers and one qf the employees, presided

oyer by a judge of the ‘Supreme Court, to decide disputes. The judge may side with one or other of the representa-

tives and his decision is necessarily partisan. He may make a compromise between the two. But there is no re-

presentative of tne third great party

which must always pay the bills —the general public. Until the consumer becomes organised to resist injustice for either employer or employee —there will be no change. Half a century ago labour was not so intricate a thing as it is to-day. Organisation has made it interdependent. If the worker leaves the job, very little difference —if any—is felt. But if a union docs so, then the whole country is held up—friends as well as others, l’t seems feasible to suggest that the old Roman law: “Salus populi suprem.i lex esto.” (Let the safety of the public be the supreme law) should be our first consideration. Ho right-thinking man wishes law akin to top and bottom jaws in a head, but with the teeth in only one jaw. Pood is best masticated when the bottom teeth have their counterpart in the top. Legislation which is. wholly in favour of the employer is fundamentally wrong—it is undemocratic,’ similarly with legislation which favours the employee.