THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1909. "SECTIONAL MOVEMENTS."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3212, 11 June 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1909. "SECTIONAL MOVEMENTS."

The only Labour member in the House, Mr D. McLaren, has been criticising the Government's efforts to cope with the unemployed problem, and, as is usual with those who advocate party politics instead of national welfare, he indulges in comments of a hackneyed description, and shows that he, a leader of Labour, is not any further advanced in his views than the Labour party is generally. For years past the "Lib-Lab" party—a Labour party more than it is anything else, has been running the country, and during that period we have had the wisdom of its labour laws extolled to the skies—it 3 Socialistic legislation has been held up to the wonderment and envy of the wurld—and even the party that was supposed to suffer by the perfect cyclone of Socialistic legislation has at times evinced a sort of unnatural admiration for it, We were just beginning to think that New Zealand had solved with the most perfect ease problems that are about as old as the world, and which have been a source of trouble since the first compiler of .history commenced his work, when an unpleasant "slump" set in, and it became startingly obvious within an incredibly short space of time that our produce had but to command low prices in the world's markets for a few years, and New Zealand would be suffering from a i greater degree of depression than it has ever hitherto experienced. Fortunately, most fortunately, the country's trade, to speak colloquially, "took a turn for the better," and there is now good reason to hope that within the next few months we shall have left the worst part of the "slump" behind us. But we are digressing from our subject. Mr McLaren said to a pressman the other day, "It was a duty on the part of the Government to face this question (unemployment) in a comprehensive way, and to take into consideration the causes of the difficulty, and regulate industry in a way that would provide against it in future. The Government should make the matter one of policy and provide means for applying the principle of the Right to Worknot here and there to isolated sec-1

tions, but to all citizens who honestly show that they want work and cannot procure it. The evil of these small sectional movements to grapple with this problems of modern industrialism is that as soon as trade

in any measure revives the experiment is allowed to lapse and to fall into disuse, so that with every period of acute trouble the whole of the preparations for again meeting the situation have practically to be commenced de novo, and are gone on with on the same old lines of temporary relief." It is all very well to denounce the Government for "small sectional movements," but how can the Government deal with the problem in any other way? The industries of a country are not made in a day, and, apart from that tact, the Government are not yet universal employers. The Government are not in a position to offer work, except of certain kinds of a rough nature, to any extent, and it is only in times of depression that the Government should undertake "sectional movements" as Mr McLaren terms them. We have every sympathy with the workers, but we fear that on many occasions they are but blindly led. It is the very antithesis of the Government's duty to be "sectional"; all the efforts of our administration should be centred on national development. Instead of worrying itself about a surplus of labour, legislation the Government should be satisfied with preventing sweating, and seeing that the hours worked are reasonable, and that fair wages are paid therefore. After that employers and employees should be allowed to arrange matters of mutual interest among themselves. If the Government of the country were to concern itself a little more in regard to the welfare of employers it can be taken for granted that it would confer a boon upon the employees, and that "sectional movements" would not be required, much less would it be necessary to develop such movements in times of prosperity. The one aim of any capable, patriots Government should be to develop the natural resources of the country, and if this were dons at a reasonable rate there would be good wages for all workers, and no lack of employment for anyone. Seeing that such is the case we may fairly ask how much good has the Arbitration Court been to the workers as a whole? It is true that it has increased the wages of a limited number of employees, but, on the other hand, there are many people working just as long hours and receiving less (comparatively) than they did before its institution. So much for legislation; it is just about time that administration on common-sense lines was adopted and pursued with energy and earnestness.