The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1921. THE ARBITRATION COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 214, 8 September 1921, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1921. THE ARBITRATION COURT.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that need* renmtanee, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

We should say that no one realises more fully than the President of the Arbitration Court himself tbe seriousness of departing from the principle of stabilisation of wages laid down by the Court in May last. Yet Mr. Justice Frazcr has decided that the wages ol shearers and ehed hands shall be reduced, and it is estimated that the average reduction in shearers' wagfes will amount to 16/6 a week. The employers' assessor at first did not afrree, but in the end formally withdrew his dissent. The workers' representative., Mr. J. A. MeCullouph, dissented, and on the ground that the decision is a breach of promise, has resigned. There will be difference' of opinion as to the wisdom of the resignation, but there should he none as to its sincerity. Mr. McOullough has fjiveii some years of service to the Court, and commanded the respect of his opponents. The- merits of the Court's decision turn on the interpretation of the qualifying clause in the May pronouncement. In deriding that wages should be stabilised for twelve months the Court did not lay down an absolute rule, but announced that it would require "proof of extraordinary circumstances" before departing from the principles of the award. The question is, does the condition of the sheep-farming industry come tinder the category of "extraordinary circumstances"? The employers' assessor is so convinced that it does that he considers no award should be made, but that employers and workers should be left to settle wages individually. Mr. Justice I'razer thinks it docs, and has accordingly fixed a new rate of wages on a lower scale. Mr. Mcfullough thinks

it does not, and has resigned in protest. He contends that in addition to the pronouncement of May there was an "unwritten understanding." • It may l>o quite proper for Mr. McCullough to allow himeelf to he influenced hy something that happened, or may have happened. in the private deliberations of the Court, hut the public can only judge the Court by its public pronouncements.

The President of the Court, who is responsible for the award,.,bases his decision on two grounds—the scale of wages hitherto paid to shearers, and the present state of the industry. He finds that the shearers' average wage, to-day is £'■1 7/6 higher than his wage in 1904,

but thai workers in t-iruilar grades art; only X.2 better ofT than they were sixteen years ago. There has also to be taken into account the fact- that the .shearer gets an allowance for rations, the cost of which has greatly increased. 'File President contends that the shearer benefited by the steady rise in the price of wool from 1000 onward, including the phenomenal rise during the war, and he infers that what lias been a system of profit-sharing should now become one of loss-sharing. The sheep-farmers' net return, he says, is now far below what it was in 100(5, and there is no prospect of a material increase for some considerable time. He might have cited the wool disposal figures published this week, from which it appears that the Imperial Government's "carry-over' , of New Zealand wool is 700,000 bales. It is, of course, well known that the sheepfarming industry is in a serious position owing to the fall in wool, though in Auckland the evidence is not so plentiful as it is in other parts of New Zealand. The figures for the latest tirclve-monlh period show a decline ftora £13,34.1,000 to £8,118,000 in the value of exported wool. Mr. Justice Frazer docs well to counteract the prevalent idea that wool is the product of "wool kings," by showing the importance of the class of small sheep-farmers. The average flock last year numbered less than one thousand sheep. He is convinced that the position of the average sheep-farmer to-day is "exceedingly serious,"' and that accordingly the case conies under the category of "extraordinary circumstances" referred to in the May pronouncement. He awards the shearer a wage that is calculated to leave him with a relative increase on the same scale as that given to workers in other industries, but to deprive him of the additional amounts conceded by owners and awarded by the Court in times of prosperity. It is unofficially stated that the new average wage will be £5 18/6 instead of £6 15/, which will strike most people as a good wage, especially when it is considered that rations are added. It must be remembered, however, that shearing is a seasonal occupation, and it would be interesting to know what the average income of the shearer amounts to.

Mr. Justice Frazer has taken the middle course, and is bound to incur hostility from the parties on either side. On the day that the attitude of the employers' Assessor is made known, we have the chairman of a farmers' freezing company in the AVellington province expressing a similar view of the wages problem. Mr. Scott, j in the Arbitration Court, would have [ employers and Avorkcrs settle their differences without help from the Court. Surely it may be doubted whether this would either promote peace, or tie in the best interests of the workers in a time of depression, when they may be less able than previously to stand up for ! themselves. The chairman of the freez-!

ing company mentioned called for the abolition of the Arbitration Court and the whole Act, and war between the freezing companies and their employees if the latter would not moderate their demands. The President of the Court has at least done the community, and especially the workers, the service of dissociating himself 'nd the Court from any such attitude, and of maintaining the Court as an instrument of industrial peace in industries in which, owing to rapid fluctuation of prices, the adjustment of wages may prove difficult. The action of the workers' assessor in resigning- emphasise;, this difficulty, and indicates that the principle of compulsoryarbitration as applied in Xcw Zealand has now reached a critical stage which involves its continuance as a practical means of settling industrial disputes at a time of falling prices.