LABOUR LAWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 10

LABOUR LAWS.

DOMINION CONFERENCE.

PARLIAMENTARIANS TO MEET

GOVERNMENT S INVITATION.

(Bj Telegraph.—Special to "Star.")

WELLINGTON, this day,

The Government has invited members of the Committee of Parliamentarians to meet in Wellington on Wednesday, February 1, to consider proposals for the investigation of.the effect of the New Zealand labour laws on industry, particularly the primary industrv.

The Prime Minister has been actively associating with the Minister of Labour in arranging the details of this preliminary meeting. It is intended to submit suggestions regarding the method of getting at the facts of the situation and reaching sound conclusions. Investigations will be carried on simultaneously by members of carefully-selected groups, and it will be the responsibility of the Parliamentarians to lay down the lines of the inquiry and plan the groups, with which, no doubt, they will be associated. When the names of the committee were announced, it was mentioned that Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, desired a colleague to act in his place, as he was then in poor health. He willj however, be in Wellington when the committee commences its work, and he may l be able to take his place. Although the investigtaion arose out of farmers' anxiety to be completely relieved of the statutory regulation of theii labour conditions, the inquirv is expected to cover the general effect of awards upon production. A somewhat similar inquiry is taking place iu England, and it is an interesting point that the proposal for New Zealand's overhaul of its labour legislation was made before the English plans were announced. A good deal of official attention has been given to the same problem in the United States, where it has been contended that the high cost of products produced under sheltered labour conditions has imposed such burdens on the agricultural section that the returns from land are inadequate.