A LABOUR EXPERIMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 131, 4 June 1923, Page 4

A LABOUR EXPERIMENT.

There was a time when Mr. Robert Semple was classified by most people us a Labour extremist. Since liis defeat at the election of 1910. however, he has been out of public life, and for the greater part of that time he has been the leader of mi interesting industrial experiment in Wellington. He was instrumental in inducing the AYellington City Council to give to himself and a number of other workers a co-operative contract for driving a lung tunnel at Orongorongo. The idea was to eliminate the contractor and to do the work on the principle of equal shares. Mr. Semple, who is head of the gang, receives the same wage as the men under him. From all accounts the work has been done well and quickly. Mr. Semple stated in January that his men had put up an Australasian record in tunnelling through hard rock, and he now claims that at his party's rate the Otira tunnel would have been driven in live years instead of twelve. He also points to the clean record of this tunnel work in the matter of accidents as compared with that of other similar undertakings' in N'cw Zealand. In January lie furnished the interesting detail that in driving 4.>o()ft of tunnel the only accident had been an injury to a finger. Mr. Semple, however, is not concerned only with comparisons between the results of this experiment in co-operation and those of work under ordinary conditions, but with criticisms that have come from a section of the workers. The Orongorongo enterprise had not been long in ', progress before there were murmurs that Mr- Semple was betraying the worker, and he. defended himself publicly in Wellington with a refreshing vigour. An important feature of the experiment has been that there have been no labour troubles, and the real charge against Mr. Semple seems to have 'been that he devised conditions of work with which the workers were contented. He now returns to his defence, and describes as "bunkum" the charge that by adopting the principle of co-operation "the vicious idea of speeding-up" is fostered. The explanation of the good results is that the men have incentive and responsiI bility. Many people who have not shared I his views will agree with him that it, Jis highly desirable that workers should jbe }{ivpn more of both of these things; i how to do so is one of the industrial and economic problems of the time. Payment by results is an incentive, but it is strongly opposed in some quarters just for the above reason, that it leads to speeding up, and also because it puts the inferior worker at a disadvantage. Mr. Semple has shown that he is not afraid to apply the principle under certain conditions. The Orongorongo experiment has been watched with interest, which will not be lessened by the spectacle of Mr. temple rebuking extremists of the "Left." He once had the reputation of being a disturbing element in industry. He now shows himself a constructive force in the Labour world. Some of his former friends would rather see him in the old role. They resent anything short of the complete overturn of the existing system and the reign of the proletariat.