The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUG. 24, 1905. INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7907, 24 August 1905, Page 2

The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUG. 24, 1905. INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION.

One o( the chief [actors in the progress and prosperity of this colony has been, the success which has attended its industrial legislation, which has attracted so much attention in other parts of the world. The satisfactory solution of the many important questions which aftect thi toilers in every country is a task of sonic magnitude, and unless approached in a sympathetic and sagacious spirit very little good is likely to result. The main feature in any legislation tieaiing with the interests of the working classes must necessarily be the recognition of their right to be

treated justly and fairly, while being protected from the machinations of unscrupulous employers—and their name is legion. The race for wealth in modern times has rcvolutionisc.l the old older of relationship which existed between employer and nilployed, and though there are still many capitalists who act perfectly fairly hy their employers, there has

arisen a class which nothing hut legislation can bring into the light line. When il is considered what intense sufferings have been caused in the past by tlie arbitrary conduct of cm ployers o[ labour, it is a source of pleasure to see how sincere has been the effort of the Government of this colony to place the labour .[ueslioii on a satisfactory basis. We do no contend that the workers have always had right on their side when making demands that were unreason able, but no one can 'gainsay the wisdom of providing a satisfactory means of settling labour disputes am! placing the industrial workers in such a posiliou that their just claims shall be acceded to without recourse to those c(bjectionable methods which arc still to be found in existence in other countries. New Zealand has been called the working man's paradise, and no greater compliment can be paid our legislators than (his. Whereverithc happiness of the masses is secured, ihcrc will surely be found peace and prosperity. That the wise enactments of this colony arc appreciated in other places where strikes prevail strikingly illustrated in an article which recently appeared in a Chicago paper, wlierein the writer says "The substitution of judicial decision for rancorous battle in the [settlement of trade and labour disputes has been attended with very remarkatWe success! jn< Newt Zealand, where complete industrial peace has reigned since the coming into law of the colony's bold but wise enactment on the question of an-.(ration between contending labour and capital. The failure of voluntary settlement in both America and England, where 40,000,M00d01. were annually .sacrifice: in each country to the monstrous fallacy ol strikes and lock-outs, senc-.i

as an admirable lesson to the public and politicians of the southern colony, who, without precedent, had tin wisdoni to decree and the courage to enforce the principle of compulsory arbitration. At the time when this proposal was brought before the Npw Zealand people, and during the period following immediately on the passage of the Hill, there were critics within the colony, and in all the great industrial centres of the world outside/ who confidently predicted that disaster would follow swiftly in the wake of legislation which they said encroached on liberty, endowed the workers with a sham responsibility, opened a new road for manipulation in favour of capital, and exploited a fresh avenue for the hindrance of industrial development. Experience has amply dein n.,tiated the falsify and fatuity of m.-.■>,• mistaken and i,io..mt forebodings. Every law interferes with tlie liberty of the individual in some particular, and the legislation of all civilised countries shows that I the most liberal enactments provido : for the limitation or sacrifice of peijtfonal freedom where the good of the i public calls for such interference. Compulsory education and compulsory sanitation are two familiar ini stances where peiHonal freedom is largely, netvssarily, and happily mpdj died with in the interests of the coin[mon weal. No such full measure of interposition is possible in the working of this law of arbitration, which would be more correctly described as mandatory, instead of Ci.mpuKory, since the Act is not put into motion ]

except on the request -1 o or oilier disputant. As to the a .s, •nsibiiity of the workers, ten years m irial have decisively flouted this chimera, a conquest i all the more easy in a community where the labour organisations have few calls on thcr' finances, and where the majority of the Workers have individual properly in the shape of their cottage lonics." Such unbiassed testimony lo the success uf our labour legislation is a conducing proof (if any were wanted) of the success which has attended the efions to promote the welfare of the wo,'lters, and to the enduring i:ature ol il:e peaceful methods which have lien adopted. The future of the colony may Well be faced with lonfidence provided the people do not, in a passing wave of,emotion, go hack on those who have identified th;m-elves with the policy which has secured such great benefits to ihc workers, and place in power those who arc not, only opposed to the best interests of the masses, but whose sympathies are in [a\our of the capitalists. It is hardly possible ic conceive that a time will come When the majority of the electors will be led astray in such a way as to injure their own prospects. We have too much faith in- their good sense to contemplate such a disaster, and there is every reason to believe that the day is distant when such an undesirable re ti'ogressive move will foe possible.