Our Labour Laws.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 262, 4 December 1903, Page 4

Our Labour Laws.

SOCIALISM IN NEW 2HSALAND."

(Otag-o Daily Times.) Lader the above heading, printed . across two col*mns in the Jangle tvpe which is so much favoured hv American journafls, with several pub-head-ings, the Los Angalos Times ' r ubUslios from a eorreispondent at Kahlua, in the King Counlrv, a letter purporting to depict the state o': avians as. they exist in fehis colony. More or legs untruthful representations of the political and economic circumstaftQos qf New Zealand are constantly appearing i n diQVent portions of the world, but the "impression* that hare been formed by the corroflpjondsnt erf the Los Angelos paper, who is himself apparently a resident of tie eolony, seem on the whole to be reasonably sound At least, thou&h he writes with an evident bias against the labour legislation with whioh our Rarliament has been experimenting, he has summed up fairly accurately the siumtion which has been produced as the result of that legislation. Shorter hours of labour, higher wages, and an increased number of holidays have he points out, been obtained by tho working .lasses in the towns atui the latest, but not he imagines' the last—demand of the trade unionists has been that they sliould l*. granted compulsory preference of employment. The Legislature lias been unable to recognise the dos-iraibieness of acceding to this demand, but it will bo revived, and it would seem from a letter sent by Mr SedJon to the Auckland Trades and Labour Council that it was only on tho point of the opportuneness of at present granting the demand that Ihc CaUwnet, some members of which voted one way and some the other way en the cmestion, was divided Oh the assumption that the p'efei'ence the Unionists seek will ',et be accorded, the Los Angelos'Times' correspondent observes that, us already the number of apjj.-eni.ices in most trades is limited to imic to every three journeymen, the effect will lie that in the eourse of a fewyears trade in the colony will be in the hands of a privileged few. That undoubtedly, is A development that is prolrably not very remote, and in it donsists u> distinct danger to the industrial future of the colony, liiu we question greatly if there ,'s " a very good chance." or any chance at all, that --in the near future a good deal of our boasted advanced legislation will fall io the ground " and that -'we shall, like other countries, have to seek other means of reconciling labour and capital." There is. as a ma,tter <rf fact, if the case i*> fairly staled, no antagonism between capital and labour; the conflict, if conflict there" by. is between one form of capital and another-, and it is inconceivable that the colony will deliberately abandon the system of a judicial settlement, that it has now seen in operation ' lor nearly a dsecadc, of industrial disputes. That the system lias been put to a use wlnTh was never intended is incontestable, and that it has been tho instrument for the introductton of discord in industries where harmony previously obtained is equally incapable of disproof : but, aUused though it has bven, it is not likely to be discarded hastily by yhe New Zealand community. How it | will stand the stress *i a time of de-

I pression remains, however, to be seen ; and until it has been subjected to the test a period of trade adversity will apply it is premature to describe it as an absolutely signal success such as it has in some quarters lyeen represented to be. Even under the favourable conditions under which we have seen the system in operation thoso who have, on the surface, most materially benefited by its existence have found that their* experience has not been wholly satisfactory. For though wages may be higher and hours shorter, the advantajge that is conferred upon them by reason of these things is seriously discounted when it happens that, also by reason of them, the cost of everything that is manufactured in tho colony, or is otherwise handled in preparation for consumption is increased ; and thus* it is with perfect truth that the Los Angelos Times' correspondent states that " food, clothing, and even rent are higher, so that the surplus wages of a man who is in employment, after paying l for these necessaries, are no more than they were before the combination of labour." It must ever be the result of artificial interference with the industrial conditions of a country that, where a change is made that increased the cost of production or preparation of an article, the price of the. article itself will be increased, and the person who benefits by the increase in the cost of production, will be mulcted of a portion of that benefit by the increased price he has to pay for the article, and, when that process is repeated in respect to several other articles of which he is in need, but in the production or preparation of which he has taken no part, it must clearly be doubted whether in the end he is any better off. And if all the industries of a country were of such a nature that it was possible that, by this operation in the form of a circle, the increase in the cos); of production could be passed on to the consuming public no one would be placed at a disadvantage. But New Zealand is, in the main, an agricultural and pastoral country ; and the price of tine oats, the wheat,, and other cereals the colony produces and of the wool she grows cannot be statutorily fixed, but is dependent upon the stato of markets a* the other eiid of the world. If these should show a fall of a,ny moment in prices, while the farmer is required to pay a higher figure for every service that is rendered him in the colony, then the difficulty of satisfactorily maintaining the present system in its ontirety will have to 'top recognised.