INDUSTRIAL QUARRELS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 102, 20 October 1911, Page 4

INDUSTRIAL QUARRELS.

Mr. \Y. Peniber Reeves, the father of | the New Zealand. cpneili.ation and arbitration law, i,s evidently not au fait with industrial' events as they are happening; in New. Zealand at the present day. lie told an audience at the Brjtish i Association that the conciliation system ] was working: well in New Zealand, that I the strike and the lock-out'had given way to the scientific and judicial settlement liv State.tribunals. ' These sentiments tire hardly uttered when Labor '< definitely accuses this tribunal of unfair-ne.--n.aml partisanship, when it demands the removal of the president of a court, and when manv , unions are. cancelling their registration and will presumably revert if necessary to the haphazard method of tlie strike. Indeed, New Zealand has been'informed lately that "the father of a strike" is pending, and, in short, industrial unrest of a grave character is imminent. There are. very good reasons why workers find arbitration and conciliation methods distasteful, the chief one being that workers' brains and brawn are not classified, and individuality is utterly cramped and made unnecessary. It is not surprising, of course, that Jlr. Reeves, now out of politics, should be misinformed of the trjie condition of affairs in New Zealand, and it is unlikely that the British Association will bother itself very much whether strikes in New Zealand are impossible or possible. Arbitration and conciliation have had manyvictories in Xew Zealand, but there certainly have been 110 outstanding "wins" lately. Therefore Labor is dissatisfied, and has shown that Mr. Pember Reeves is quite misled in his estimate of the value of the methods he praised.