THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9142, 18 July 1908, Page 7

THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

(By Frank Morton.)

The Arbitration Tangle.—A Hori>. lis.',a Homily.—Mb Justice Sim.

It will be time enough to deal in detail with the arbitration tangle when the matter comes l'ully and effectively under the notice of Parilament. Meantime, the general matter demands the consideration of the country. The general matter is easy to epitomize. Years ag> in New Zealand the tide of what we know a 8 democratic government began to set in strongly. The country was fertile, isolated, rich in minerals, well provided with good agricultural and pastoral lands; at ali points a country weli suited for industrial experiment. The experiments were carried oat courageously and without scruple. The franchise was extended to the fullest possible extent. Associated 1 ibour was afforded every facility to make its convictions effective in law. Every safeguard that could be contrived against the mean or unscrupulous employer of lahuiK was eagerly adopted. Every posiijle devire to extend the liberties and secure the rights of the workers was given honest trial. The employers, exposed at times to great loss and grave anxiety, submitted loyally to the teits. At the dictates of Labour, tribunals of conciliation and arbitration were established. Tins worker* themselves eagerly declared tha conviction that the wrongs and disabilities of their class were in a fait- way to be for ever removed and forgotten in this country. Thanks to the lavish lubrication of incessant enormous Joans, public works were pushed on liberally, and a great wave of apparent prosperity swept over the land. Thanks to the political and social "pull" of the unions, reacting on the courts of conciliation and arbitration, the wages of workers were raised in every trade and calling, ! while the conditions of labour were at all points materially improved. In order that local industry might be protected against the competition of the world, a high tariff wall was erected. In harmony with the general tenuency, the municipal franchises were broadened and extended till in civic affairs alsj the workers had a preponderance of influence.

Then natural law began to as*ert itself. The high wages of the workers naturally increased the coat of products. The employers, harrasaed and beset by new anxieties and lnni • tations, insisted on obtaining reasonable profit. High as the tariff wall was, there began tn be ominous murmurings at th 3 back of it. The courts of conciliation and arbitration, giving lavishly with both hands, slowly realised that along certain avenues they could give no more. All the! just demands of the workers were liberally 1 conceded; Lut there came a day when occasionally the demands of the daughters of the horseleech had to be resisted. The workers, growling in their paradise, began to get sniffs of something that they thought was brimstone. Some of them found that their high wages brought them less comfort and narrower lifa than they had previously secured with their lower wages. All over the country, poor political craftsmen began to grumble at their tools. Many-of the workers began to suspect, although few were found willing to admit, that there might be worse taskmasters than the employers had ever been. It is a fact indubitable that you cannot prevent the sunrise by ayainsi it. When the workers could get no more by|ji'orce or persuasion from the tribunals appointed to their order, they commenced to turn against those tribunals. Here, then, is the position, for the consideration of men of intelligence. The workers have had all the protection tha,t a Government pledged and bound to the workers dare provide for them. They have dominated, and monopolised legislation ; for moro than fifie.-n years. They, ; through their chosan and .approved • legislators, have borrowej money 1 till the sum total of their borrowings has become a flagrant scandal. And now they have turned to bite the hands that have hepied them; they have gone hack to the I rutal barbarism of strikes. | I saw a of the Arbi- | tration Court in the South IslanJ, j ,in the days when Mr Justice Chapman was President. I travelled with the Court and attended all i:s i sittings during one extended tour. ! I was especially impressed by the wonderful patience of the Court with ] the unskilled advocates appeuring j for the unions. I never knew another Court on earth that gave any .advocate such latitude. I was further impressed by the lact (although here I was doubtless deluded) that' the Court always tended to favour the unions. They always had the benefit of the doubt. If any point could be stretched to favour them, .that point wan stretched cheerfully, or so it seemed to me. The President was rno t fastidious and scrupulous in the cl-nirne-s of his s.ateinents. I could detect lew loophoks left for .any possible mi-understanding. Now Mr Justice Chapman has given plane to Mr Justice Sim; and Mr Justice Simjhas speedily become the pet bugbear of tradea'-unionism. That is to me a most astonishing thing. 1 doubt whether you could find a fairer or more humane man than Mr Justice Sim anywh.re.