COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 142, 6 September 1927, Page 8

COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

NEW SOUTH WALES AWARDS By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright SYDNEY, Monday. The Royal Commission appointed by the State Government to inquire into the allegations published in the Sydney "Morning Herald” recently commenced its sittings to-day. The commission defined the scope of its inquiry. It decided that its business is to inquire into the conduct of the Industrial Commissioner only, and not say whether -he Lang Government is Red-ridden ,i>r bound hand-and-foot by the Trades Hall.—A. and X.Z. The statements in the Sydney "Morning Herald" referred to in the message were contained in an article written by a correspondent in a leading article on the subject in the same paper. In dealing with industrial awards the correspondent said: "The Government, by hook or by crook, managed to maintain its bare majority and it is to this Government that the Industrial Commissioner owes his appointment and acknowledges his duty. If this be true, it follows that the administration of our industrial system is dictated, not by justice, as is the promised aim of other tribunals, but by political influence.” The leading article said, inter alia: "The rural workers are not blind. They know the stern reality behind the farmers’ protests against the award. The Industrial Commissioner has said that he is . not so much a Judge as the. voice of a Parliamentary majority, and that his fNTOG<MIur« hi flxmg the rural basic wage was to make an award first and hear the evidence after.”