THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1913. COMMONWEALTH CONSTITUTION

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 22 April 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1913. COMMONWEALTH CONSTITUTION

On the sth hist the Electorate Department of the Commonwealth issued a pamphlet relating to the proposed amendments of the Constitution to be submitted to a referendum on the occasion of the general election to be held on 31st May. Arguments for and against the proposals as approved by the representatives of the two political parties are given by the Paatoralists' Review for the consideration of the electors. The arguments for the changes are, it says, largely based on unwarranted assumptions and wrong deductions. Their framers aim apparently at putting the whole of the continent of Australia, with its exceedingly diverse local conditions, into a strait jacket. The principle of Federation is to be abandoned, and a labour oligarchic system of unification is to be adopted. The objectors to the proposals rightly hold that federalism is best suited to Australian conditions-, and that therefore, with the exception of the. general powers conferred by the Constitution on the Federal Government, State rights should be preserved. The references in the ''Foreword,' of the pamphlet! referring to other Federal Constitutions, are grossly misleading. But the mere political aide of the case may be ignored in this place, an important question being, How would the proposed amendment*; of the Constitution! affect tlie producers ? There are six proposals relating to (1) Trade and Commerce; (2) Corporations; (',]) Industrial Matters; (4) Railway Disputes ; (5) Trusts and (6) Nationalisation of Monopolies. The first and third are of more direct interest to producers than the rest. The scope of the first would embrace every kind of business dealing. As the framers of the argument against its adoption put the matter: "It must be remem-

bered that trade a,nd commerce laws, vvitli their dual .problems and complexities, affect everyone either directly or indirectly, since thoy embrace the dealings of producers, manufacturers, carriers, agents, employers, skilled and unskilled labourers, buyers; and sellers, .State officials and railway Men, and private persons in their pri-, vnte affairs; they include all transportation, navigation, shipping, and railways with the means and instrumentalities employed, the freights and faxes paid, the passengers, and the highways they utilise. Under this proposal tlie sales of retail business men come; under Federal supervision." Supervision of tlie > nature proposed should not be entrusted to a cast-iron contra I administration, intent not upon promoting the interests of producers, but exploiting them to the uttormost. The third proposal includes, amongst other matters, the vesting iu the Commonwealth the power to make laws affecting "the terms and conditions of labour and employment in any trade, industry, occupation, or calling." Under such an amendment the Commonwealth could, and certainly would, if the Labour Party remains in power, make wages and conditions uniform throughout Australia without duly considering the great differences in local circumstances. The belnvfjts of the Australian Workers' Union would be abjectly carried out by a Labour Government in all matters affecting the producer, .from the large pastoralist to the small struggling selector. The rest of theproposals, especially that relating to railway disputes, are also more or less objectionable. On the whole it is clear that the Commonwealth should not be invested with the additional powers sought by the Labour Party, notwithstanding the specious and not particularly veracious arguments set forth in the pamphlet. Even on the commonplace ground that it is better to stick to the devil you know than to change to the one you do not know, the proposed amendments should be rejected.