ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.

Bush Advocate, Volume XX, Issue 1001, 13 April 1908, Page 8

ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.

! . _ ; ♦ In the course of his address at Kaitangata on Saturday night, the Premier said : — The whole trouble under the arbitration system was that it brought every many who was working for a living under an award to a dead level. If a man was a good worker he could not earn more than an inferior worker, with the result that the man who wanted in the same time by tho exercise of his superior skill or better education to earn more than the man who was not so skilled, could no c do so. For that reason, ho considered, tho country wanted" «. more .perfect system of conciliation and arbitration in New Zealand for the workers and employers, then, instead of saying, "We have a system to settle a difficulty between employer and employee," let them say that.'- though they believed the law to ?k> a good one, they should repeal it and have done with it. The sooner the people discussed the matter with their representatives and among themselves the sooner would the country arrive at an improved system of 'conciliation and arbitration, or decide to do away with the system altogether. 1 hey. could not have a law on tho statute book to prevent strikes, and side by side with it have strikes going on, notwithstanding the law. In the present trouble on the West Coast, tho Government had not interfered si n co the decision of the Arbitration Court, and did not intend to interfere. Tho subject was one that should not be used by any section of the community for political reasons, and the Government did not want to get support by footballing a matter that was of the deepest concern to the men and women of the country. Tho Covernment were prepared to improve the system of conciliation and arbitration, though, so long as the law stood as it Mas at present, it must be obeyed ; and if either side disrespected it no one need step m and ask the Government to help. Iho Government would not do it, because it would be- a dishonorable thing to do.