CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 226, 17 September 1908, Page 2

CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION.

THIS A.MENDING BILL. AK I.MI-UHTA.NT DISCUiSMOitf. By Telegraph,--Frcss Association. Wellington, Last Mglit. In lire House of Kcprcscntalives today, Air. .Millar nioveu the coiinnilliil of the Industrial Conciliation ami Arbiiviili.,ll Hill, lie n ai,l that Hi- queslion with which Hi,. J ill 1 dealt embodied tile, most ddliiuli problem of the present lime. Jt was the problem of the world. Tilvy had had some years'experience of arbilration, nail' though many said it was an absolute lailure, Iho experience of other countries showI ed it had been a success. Though some people might be dealing discontent with 11 view to upsetting the present system, lite people of .New /eahe.id were determined it should be maintained. The recent dissatisfaction with the Court had been due to the fact that wages hail mil been increased as much as was wantcl. but the Court, could not jju on increasing wages indeliniliiIv, and lite workers must be told so candidly. Tile House rose al 5..10 and resumed at 7.30.

.Mr. .Millar, continuing his speech „ saiil tlistt. tli.' workers eoniplainod thai (ho increased wages received wore; valueless, as they wire absorbed l.y the increased cost uf living. JJid thoy, ho askcil, suppose the employer uuiild b.ar all me c-o-t of higher wages? Nowhere ia tlw world would they find such a doctrine as Ilia I obtaining in practical life. Tile cost of high wages must, be ]iassod on lo the. workers. 'flu consumers must bear their share, lie denied that tiie remedy, as was assorted, lay in increasing the tarill', beeausj to increase Hie la rill was to handicap our exports. The limit of everything d< peiided upon Hie cost of our product! and the price we could sell it at in other countries. Our tarill was designed lo help local industries to go on. If

wo increased wages we merely helped lih! imported article to come in, which meant a decline of our industries. It was therefore necessary to 'evolve some machinery Hint would bring about an improvement hi the relations existing between capital and labor. The existing machinery had proved clearly mcli'ectivc in flic past two years. It was proposed to abolisli ConclliatK)ii Hoards. This was objected to by some, but he could show good iciisuii ! why they should be abolished. The Hoards were intended to conciliate, but instvad they had become law uourbs, in w'hieh the parties fought one another? lie denied tliat the ''Willis blot'' was responsible, but rather the blame lay at the door of certain leaders of unions who had become seized of the idea that union representatives should always light, and, so, lie said, if we wanted conciliation we must provide machinery to obtain it. There seemed some who were unable to hold ollicc without causing trouble. (Ileaq Urear). lie could tell these men they

would be thought more of by the unions if they created less trouble. He luul letters from unions to sliow they did not approve of these agitators. It was a fact that Hie number of disputes settled by the Boards was not in proportion to the money snout. Nobody objected to the expense if industrial peace were attained. (Hoar, hear) lint it had not been attained, and recently tiro l decisions of the Court had failed. He had prepared a return which showed that during the past fourteen years strikes hi tin's country had involved the loss of.Cl/,707 to'the workers, and to employers .CIo.GSS. To these totals must 'be added ,05000 in ' round liguivs for penalties. This show-

Ed (he value of producing real concilinlii'ii, and be hoped to have the help of workers in framing the Bill, but practically no help Ivy suggestions had come from' them. lie desired to tell the unions frankly that no Parliament would ..ever give unions such powers as would enable them to prevent any man from earning a livelihood in this country. lie regretted that the articles which bad appeared in the public Press had not tended in the direction of industrial peace. Hi; devoted the rest of his speech to an exposition of the Bill as contained in the statement communicated by aim to the Press on Friday, and previously telegraphed. lie was confident that pari :i would ensure real conciliation, ami, if Icigicnllv accepted, would prove, a solution of 111,' dHlieiiity. He hopI'd every member would assist in every way to pas- the measure and make things better than they were. (Ap-

Ml!. MASSEYS CRITICISM. Mr. .Ma-sev agreed iliat tire problem was dillicnlt.' This Bill was a confession that our system of c<mcil»liou and arbitration had failed, anil it was for the House to determine whether if would retain on (lie Statute Book a measure which had failed. While a strong believer in conciliation, he thought no liiea-ui'e should be retained which would discourage enterprise a'ad lie a drag upon industry. The Act had done away with the sympathetic cord which existed between employer and employed, before so much, resort to Court had become the vogue, ,11c preferred the Canadian system of investigation and conciliation to our compulsory system. Keferring to the Bill, lie was glad thai the interpretation of the term "strike'' had been made clear. He approved the deletion of clause 21 (requiring employers to collect lines). The most important changes made in the Hill by the Labor Bills Committee were those in part 3. Regarding conciliation, lie strongly supported the new conciliation proposals. Some classification was required. Two classes of men sull'ercd under tjie present law—the front-ranker, who was 25 per cent, belter than his fellow, and the old and feeble worker, who had to beg for a permit to work. He did not intend to nm ko a party matter of the Bill, bu't he contended that compulsory arbitration was wrong in principle, lind would have to be amended oil' the Statute Book, ft was impossible to alter tire operation of economic laws by statute

THIS PREMIER'S VIEWS. Sir Joseph Ward denied that the increased cost of living was due to the Arbitration Act. It was due. to th'e prices of our produce in the Old Country and to the high rents prevailing 'm tjhytowns. Every amendment made in*ffi» Bill by the Labor Hills Commit* tee had been moved by the Minister for Labor, and the Government sincerely desired I'lie passage of the measure, which would ensure industrial [Mice, lie disagreed with Jlr. Massey's view that conciliation alone sunk! be embodied in the law,.. We must have whole law, incluiU'... com|«l>Srv,vbitratkm or no la'V at all.-ComdTim-'n pmv ; NHMMBk sey had advocated the Canadian system, but tin' delect of ihat was that H imposed a penalty of imprisonment, and lie was opposeil to imprisonment for ollences under the Act,

Sir Joseph Ward strongly protvsleil against the clamor of those who had asked the Government to imprison the lilackhall miners. Morally speukni" it would have been a criminal act to imprison t'liose men. He hoped the liill would be speedily passed, when th< session would end within a forUi«lil. ME.MI!EI!S' OPINIONS. Jlr. Barclay ,aid lie had given notice of li\\> amendments, and would give notice of ten more to-morrow, lie'declared a wrong met hod had been adopted in dealing with legislation of this kind. He 'said the 'Arbitration Act was merely a palliative. It could trover solve (he labor problem.

ilr. dames Allen believed in pure conciliation, but tin: powers granted under part 3 were not ample enough. One, conciliation was not enough for each Island. The grievances should bo dealt with immediately after they arose. lie did -not believe it possinio to have compulsory arbitration and pure conciliation together. ilr. Kll said compulsory arbitration was a necessary protection against sweating employees. It was favored by employers as guaranteeing an equality of conditions. He protested against (he .statement Dial ellicicney had decreased, lie deui-ed that the increased co.st of living was due to the Act, ilr. l'oolo continued the debute, tracing the rise of legislation in tile interests of labor 011 alt'ernate ihios. Ho strongly advocated concilialion as the b.st way of settling disputes. The debate was continued bv Dr. Chappie, who said tile present Bill was an improvement on existing laws, but if would he still further improved if wo cither made ;i Court an export bench, doing away with the conciliation council' or made hho conciliation council the. linal court of equity.