BEHIND THE TIMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 245, 15 October 1926, Page 6

BEHIND THE TIMES.

ARBITRATION COURT METHODS TRIALS OF EMPLOYERS. BOYS BARKED FROM INDUSTRY. (By Telegraph—Special to "Star.") CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Criticism of the methods of the Arbitration Court as obsolete, and the opinion that employers should not be called to the Court to prove the interpretation of clauses in awards, were voiced by Mr. H. Dearsley, acting-presi-dent of the Auckland Provincial Industrial Association, at the annual conference of the Xew Zealand Manufacturers' Federation last nighty "I do not oppose the Arbitration Court, for it has greatly improved the old order of strikes and lockouts," said Mr. Dearsley. "The Court has been in existence from thirty to forty years, and still makes awards on lines which were all right twenty or thirty years ago, but which, to my mind, are now out of date, especially with regard to labour." Employers, he continued, were hedged about with the Factories Act and Arbitration Court awards. There were so many regulations that the fear of breaking some of them was a real one. Trade unions were persistent in their attempt to stifle progress, in contrast to some manufacturers who were trying to improve the relations between employer and employee, by making wages and working conditions better than specified in the awards. Most employers were trying to eliminate all waste of time and material. In some firms, friction was a very small item, while in others it was common. To do away with friction was to increase efficiency by ten per cent. The limitation of the quota of apprentices to journeymen was keeping many boys out of employment. The speaker said that he was connected with the Technical College. Auckland, and knew there were many boys of good education who were debarred from entering industry. Employers did not wish to revert to the days when trades were worked almost solely by apprntices, while men walked the streets, but some more reasonable arrangement than the present was necessary.