INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION IN NEW ZEALAND.
(From Our London Correspondent.) "X LONDON, February 28. In my last letter I referred to the article in the Daily Chronicle on "Industrial Arbitration in New Zea-! land." Mr Reeves replied to it, and, I in fact, his reply was in that paper's hand 3 when news came of the strike of slaughtermen in Wellington. Then came the further news that the meat companies had conceded the increase demanded on the pay awarded under the Arbitration Court agreement, and . then followed the cable that it was ' the intention of the New Zealand Government to prosecute the strikers j under the Arbitration Act. Mr Reeves, therefore, recalled his letter, j and his reply will comprehend ihe j question on its new basis. Last week Mr Reeves delivered a lecture to the South London Ethical Society on "The Labour Laws of New Zealand and How They Work," when he made the remark that they did not claim that they had established' a Utopia in New Zealand. Under any conditions the lot of labour was hard, and it was impossible under the present capitalistic regime to , make the life of the worker a rosy I one; but they had rid themselves of, the baser features of the life of the poor. It was n,ot possible in New Zealand to-day for the slum landlord or the sweater to grow rich by fattening on the poor, and he contended that in this New Zealand had solved a problem which yet awaited solution in the Old Country. This, it seems to me, is a sufficient answer to our friend of the Daily Chronicle. The Arbitration Court has fixed a certain scale of wages which they consider fair and just. The men strike. It does not follow that the Arbitration Court is a failure. A prosecution will follow. Means will be taken to enforce obedience to the Court. One would not say that Courts of Justice are a failure because thieves still exist. A strike injures not only the strikers and the employers, but many trades who have no dispute at all, and the public generally, and any workable scheme that will remove this drastic method of settling disputes is to be commended.
CABLE NEWS.
United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19070418.2.17.3
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8403, 18 April 1907, Page 5
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379INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION IN NEW ZEALAND. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8403, 18 April 1907, Page 5
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