The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14. THE ONLOOKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 223, 14 January 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14. THE ONLOOKERS.

If "the onlooker sees most of the game," the observations of statesmen or politicians who visit New Zealand are Useful. Mr. Beeby, an Australian politician, who lias been making a cursory examination of this Dominion, has returned to Sydney, and, as is usual, litis been called upon to give his opinions on what he lias seen. Quite the most interesting opinion is that New Zealand is reaching the limit of industrial regulation. For the sake not only of the people in the industries which are regulated and the ptople who arc all indirectly affected by the regulation, it is to be hoped, that what Mr. Beeby says is true. It is impossible to agree that '■employees recognise that there is not much hope of further increase of wages," for recent deliberations of some classes of organised employees have disclosed the. fact that not only are larger wages demanded, but shorter hours, too. In connection with this phase, the reported remarks of Mr. H. Braddon at Sydney are interesting, for he reiterates the well-known truth that neither an arbitration court nor a wages board can

bO of much use in raising wages in perioJs of declining prosperity, and when awards' fc-' re averse to the employees. At such a time the fulminations of organisers would be ineffective, for wages are only possible where there is ability on the part of the employer to pay them. It is, in short, no earthly use demanding cash'from an empty s*fe. On the other hand, concession of by em-j ployees are proof positive Jhat profits can be still made after obeying the" behest of employees per medium of court, or board. But the point for the public is' that the average maker of profits, if his wages sheet shows bigger disbursements for the same number of hands, depends upon the public to jn&ke up the difference. For instance, s|)ou!4 the average seller of the average article be askc<i win' he demands one hundred per cent, Uiol'c for an article than it is sold for, in the land of its manufacture, he expects the buyer's sympathy when he points out that he has a big rent to pay, that his wages bill is large, and so on. To him it is not a question of the disbursements of the seller. The success of any body of people in obtaining higher wages for each member of the organisation is not a communistic benefit. One employer might have several classes of workers dependent on him. It is possible —indeed, numerous instances might be quoted—that the more unskilled employees, merely by organisation, are able to demand wages much higher than the wages paid to more valuable hands. As we have so often stated, increased wages do not spell increased ability or increased output, or better workmanship. While organisation frequently achieves successes, and is in many cases most necessary, the truth stands that much of it is destructive of emulation. The blacksmith, for instance, would hardly wish to become an engineer if he received better wages for being a blacksmith, and topsy-turveydom of a similar kind really does exist both in Australia nnd Xew Zealand. The obvious retort of the organised worker who returns a less profit to his employer than the worker who was not organised is, "Organise!" But

there still remains in human nature—- , some human nature —an uncontrollable desire for self-dependence, the old fighting spirit of emulation, payment according to merit, and a dislike to "lean." A fen* more years of industrial regulation by law and the ability to grade utility in workers and pay accordingly will be a last art. If it ever becomes recognised in New Zealand that competition is wrong because it hits the incompetent, then we may as well fold our hands or revert to savagedom. Mr. Beeby hit a nail that should be hit twice a day in ever)' town in New Zealand when he said that the progress of New Zealand would depend upon the increase of primary production. It will not depend upon the ability of any body of people to squeeze a larger wage out of anybody, for this ability does not represent a corresponding increase of production. If it did—very well foT everybody. The increase of primary production can only be achieved through the land. The fill- *• minator in any class of industry that is not darectly producing are able at the present (time to obtain a better hearing than is the man who insists now, tomorrow and all the time that the people's salvation is in the soil. The outsider might be pardoned for believing that the chief product of the soil in New Zealand is arbitration awards, and that the whole country is more vitally interested in . eoneiliatiion than wool, and in the strike J of a few discontents than in butter. The siwldon failure of primary production would makp "conciliation" a farce, but the average organised person appears to believe that New Zealand makes her revenue in workshops and factories. It is inevitable that in tire future all classes will be bound to see events industrial in their true perspective, but at present it seems almost hopeless to try to convince anybody that new laws are not prosper- . ity, new awards are not eatable, and less work is not progress. If the "boss" i= a person to be smashed, smash him an.l have done with it, for in 'killing him by . inches he is permitted to drag others to the grave with him. It is better for Ncn- Zealand to grow an acre of potatoes than two acres of new industrial legislation, and a finer accomplishment to settle the land than to settle the "hoss." The plough of a farmer is mightier than the pen of a judge, the sowininr of seed much more to be desired than the sowing of discord, and the rearing of a family of potential settlers a nobler feat than the erection of a fartory. "The land" should be preached from the pulpit; "the land" should be shouted from the house tops, it should be dhm-ssed on the Bench and in the home and on the street. It is more important than the gold industry, for nobodv ever ate gold, or infinitely greater subject than the coronation of a king,

the mesalliance of a duchess, or the death of an anarchist. But there is no great voice to sing the song of the land. We bicker aaid quarrel loudly over non essentials and remain dumb about the Mother of All Things.