THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 1909. THE CONCILIATION COMMISSIONERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3094, 18 January 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 1909. THE CONCILIATION COMMISSIONERS.

The capacity of the Government for muddling is really wonderful. The Arbitration and Conciliation Acts alone provide a fruitful field for amazement. Conciliation Boards were, for various reasons, a failure, and when this had been thoroughly demonstrated to the people at the peoples' expense, it was understood that the Government were going to trust to the Arbitration Court to bring about that condition of millenial peace between* employer and employed, so beautiful in theory, so impossible to achieve completely in actual practice, and in New Zealand rendered all the more difficult by the extent of the Government's interference between employers and employees. After a time, however, it must have become pretty apparent, to the Government that the operations

of the Abritration Court were coercive rather than arbitrary, and so the brilliant idea of Conciliation Commissioners has been put into effect. Anyone who has given any careful consideration to industrial disputes, realises that the conciliation commissioner scheme will not be productive of much good. The Hon. J. A. Millar has been talking to a pressman, and expressed his opinion thusly:—"l agree that it is a delicate and important experiment, but I feel that the whole thing will work out successfully. It lies practically in the hands of the Conciliation Commissioners. If they show tact and judgment it will Lie a success." The Conciliation Commissioners may show as much tact and judgment, generally speaking, as it is possible for mortal nun to show, but they cannot possess personal experience and practical knowledge of every trade in the country, and of the conditions governing the same trade in different parts of the country. Two Commissioners have been appointed, and it is understood that a third will be selected shortly. To the appointment of one of those already selected, Mr T. Harle Giles, the Political Labour League of Auckland is objecting. We w ill take the case of Mr Harle Giles, as being typical of the three Commissioners. MiGiles, in an interview with an Auckland pressman, said be intended t® carry out his new duties with honesty of purpose, and steadfastness of aim. For many years he had taken an active interest in the politics of the Dominion, but had never been an agitator, nor a partisan as between Capital and Labour. As to the duties of a Conciliation Commissioner, he toolkit that they called for strictfimpartiality, tact, and com-mon-sonse." ■ The chief aim of Conciliati'orTCouncils must always be to bring about the amicable ar.d voluntary settlement of any dispute between Capital and Labour, and to exhausc all possible means of doing so. He regarded commercial experience xas an essential qualification of the Commissioners. This sort of talk sounds very nice indeed, but what does it amount to? Boiled down, what are Mr Giles' peculiar qualifications for the very difficult position he is called upon to occupy? Wa may remark in passing, although we feel sure that it could not have influenced the Government in making the appointment, that Mr Giles has for many years been a strong supporter of the present Administration, and a prominsnt member of the "Lib-Lab" Federation at Auckland, where he conducts a commercial college. As principal of his college, j and a - u citizen, Mr Harle Giles is generally respected, and we believe that many of his pupils have obtained marked success, but we cannot see how it can be held that Mr Giles may be relied upon to effect "the amicable and voluntary settlement of any dispute between Capital and Labour." The only possible hope that there can be of arriving at any such settlement is by the appointing of arbitrators of long and practical experience of the particular trade in which the dispute has arisen. There should be no such appointments as permanent commissioners to settle all disputes. If the Government want and do what they say they want to do, then they should appoint commissioners, with special knowledge of each dispute as it occurs. The system would be found cheaper in the end, and would probably prove of benefit to industrial circles.