Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1895. MASTERS AND APPRENTICES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4942, 15 February 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1895. MASTERS AND APPRENTICES.

Wi: have just received a copy of (lie . evidence taken before the Committee of the House of Representatives dur- , iu» tlie late session, in the mutter of the Master and Apprentice Bill No. 2, and :i perusal of it tends to confirm an impression we had previously formed that labour bills of this kind do mischief. However, the titular head of the labour party still threatens us with legislation' of this particular kind in the coming session, and has pledged himself to re-introduce a Masters and Apprentices Bill, If he does succeed in navigating one through the House in the coming session, we shall feel sorry for the workers, for on tlicm in the main the blow will fall, The printing trade is said by a prominent ollici.il in the Labour Department to be one that will be specially benefitted by Hie passage of such a i measure, but it is only a lamentable ignorance of the present condition of this industry that brings men (o such a conclusion. The printing trade is in a critical condition. In Australia, to cheapen labour, type-setting machines, one of which will do the work of seven men, have been introduced. As yet, the Master Printers of New Zealand light shy of this new aid to economical production, they much prefer to employ men and boys But if their position is injuriously affected by unwise labour legislation, they will undoubtedly be driven to followthe example set-over the water. In our opinion, Mr Beeves' Masters and Apprentices Bill, if it becomes law, will deprive hundreds of men and hundreds of boys of theiremploynient. It is 011 this ground that we oppose it. Masters as a rule can look after themselves. The capital they possess, it' it does not find remunerative , return in one kind of business, can be withdrawn and invested in some other industry, and even, unfortunately, in some other country. But the worker lias frequently no resource of this kind, and changes for him mean much trouble and hardship. We are sorry to see Mr Itecvcs so determined to force on these changes, and trust that the good sense of his own party will ! cither restrain or defeat his efforts, Mr J. R. Blair, the head of the late I firm of Lyon & Bhiir,iii his evidence I before the Committee gavo some i very valuable indications of how a J Bill like tlio one in question would ■ operate, and his high persounl char- 1 acter and intelligence necessarily 1 emphasised all that ;he said, He , held that the proposed Bill would , lead to tlio preswii. juaster-printera i

being displaced by big corporations with neither soul nor conscience, as the protection'system in America bad been attended with this result. He also maintained that the effect of the Bill would he to compel employers to reduce wages in the printing trade. With knowledge of this kind before him coming from such an unimpeachable authority as Mr Blair, the Minister of Labour still desires to push on his undesirable Bill. Everyone knows that in old times there were ninny advantages, and some abuses in connection with the binding of apprentices, and if it were possible to secure the former without incurring the latter, we should be in favour of Mr Reeves' Bill. This, however, cannot be done, and the present period of depression is very inopportune for any interference with trade. Mr Reeves does not seem to be it-ware that his Juggernaut Car has crushed and is crushing beneath itswheels hundreds of working men, and if he won't stop it himself, his colleagues will have to stop it for him. In the past history of New Zealand, muster and man have toiled together as comrades, Willing, ungrudging ivork has helped the master, and all that could be done for the man in return, was done freely and fully. The unwritten law of kindness furnished a rich harvest for both, until Mr Reeves and his friends determined to plough it up, to root it out of the soil, and to replace it with labour statutes and labour regulations, to crush out the humanity which sweetened and nourished toil, and to substitute for it, the dry husks of a dozen drastic labour codes. At his instigation, the working man has eaten of the tree of knowledge, and now limls himself outside that paradise in which he formerly laboured.