The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1914. AN INDUSTRIAL ANOMALY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 209, 4 March 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1914. AN INDUSTRIAL ANOMALY.

A case which came before the Magistrate at New Plymouth on Monday brings prominently before the public, and particularly the workers, the absurdity of fettering industrial freedom. It will be sen on reference to the report of this ,-ase in another column that the offence for which a penalty was claimed was that of allowing journeymen painters to work on Saturday afternoon. The employers readily admitted the breach of the industrial agreement, merely stating the fact that the men had voluntarily worked on the occasion in question and been paid therefor. The Inspector of Awards, who was the prosecutor, did not claim a heavy penalty, his avowed object being to impress on the employers that they must obey the law. It seems so ! utterly beyond all commonsensc or reason that the right to work should be denied to those who arc not only willing, but even anxious to earn as much as they can during the week, that the marvel is Low such a stipulation as that contained in the painters' agreement could possibly have been inserted. Still more can one marvel how such a proviso could receive official sanction. It exists, however, and can well he regarded as a standing memorial of pre-sent-day industrial legislation. Here we have members of the Painters' Union not only deliberately cutting off the right to work when they please, hut, what is more Gilbertian, also rendering themselves, as well as the employers, liable to penalties for so doing. Surely crass stupidity could go to no greater lengths. It is matter for conjecture whether the workers of the present day realise how surely they are blocking their own advancement in life by these restrict-ivo clau-es in agreements and awards. They may well ponder over the matter, and nsk themselves how it was that the employers of to-day have attained their present position. Most of those who are now masters were at one time journeymen. They worked when they could without counting the hours of the week, and it was by this readineßß to utilise their powers and skill, coupled by thrift and perseverance, that they were enabled to take a higher step on the ladder of life. Where would New Zealand have been to-day if the pioneers and their immediate successors had gone about the work of developing the Dominion on present-day lines such as those to be found in the painters' award? .This country may lay claim to be called a working man's Paradise, but it will not be long, unless

sensible legislation is enacted, ere the Paradise will become an Inferno. Tho magistrate might well have marked his sense of the absurdity of the clause in question by imposing a shilling penalty instead of that of ten shillings. By describing the clause as an anomaly he was well within the region of judicial prudence. A few more such ridiculous "anomalies" will bring industrial legislation into such well-merited eontempt that a new era may dawn, giving the workers the rights of free men, and breaking the bonds of their present slavery. The sooner that day arrives the better it will be for the country and its people.