AN UNUSUAL LABOUR TROUBLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9040, 5 March 1908, Page 4

AN UNUSUAL LABOUR TROUBLE.

A somewhat unusual labour difficulty has arisen in the Manawatu district —unusual, inasmuch as employers and workers are ia perfect accord, and there is no question as to who shall get the upper hand. The whole difficulty arises out of the inelasticity of the Arbitration,. Act. When the flax industry was going ahead by leaps and bounds a schedule of pay with conditions of labour was arrived at to the satisfaction of employers and employees, and discontent was unknown. Recently, however, a depression has settled down upon the industry, causing a number of mills to close, while others are only just, running to save extinction. This has, of course, • reacted upon the mill hands. It is contended on both sides that if the wages award had not been a hard and fast affair —if the Act permitted a variation: of the award to suit altered circumstances,, the mills now closed down —some of them, at any rate—would have been able to keep going, and employers and employees alike would have benefited. The employers cannot pay, the high wages fixed under the award,, and the men cannot legally accept les*, though both would be glad of a compromise. The whole question is to be threshed out at a conference of masters and men at Fox-ton, and it isconsidered probable that the Government will be asked to provide a. means whereby a sliding scale of pay may bu adopted so as to enable the industry to be carried on without interruption. The position is' a difficult one ':o meet, and it shows what would happen should a slump in other industries unfortunately set in. The question is uiie which will' have to be tackled sooner or later, and it would be better to provide for contingencies than wait until they arise.