COLONIAL STATE TRIBUNALS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13710, 18 April 1910, Page 8

COLONIAL STATE TRIBUNALS.

MR REEVES'S LECTURES,

O'-OM OfR OWN COKRnSPOXBEXT.) LONDON. March 4. '-\ Continuing Ins addresses at th« : London School of Economics on Taes- 1 day, Mr Reeves traced the progress of legislation from the period of the great--chango at the beihuiiinj; ot the 'nineties. l"j> to !SfH\ ho said, labour in the colonies was dominated !y tht* old trades' union Ktea that alter all thsT strike was its greatoat and most valuable wt'iiiMii. and that as it ixrt'octcd~; its organisation it would bo able to: uiako u>l> ot iv in a lnaunor that it::: had not dene be tore. Now. ivy e vlledl liy the wave o: socialistic teeanj; that* was r-« copula over the colonies, it de-"l cutod to tuko a more active and direct' 1 ; sharo in polities. 'flu* iiuvortanco or? the battle.-, of 1S!H) lay not merely .in.;; the miminT of men ongagod—betausa'" England and America could easilye throw them into tho shade in that re-i spect —but in tho spirit displayed, and' the uncompromising aims ot some of;: tho labour unions, and the manner (r. which they were met by the employer*., lie traced the interesting episodes of' tin groat shearers* di-.rnito in Austral-; lia. which had lead indirectly to the. maritime striko which spread from Australia to New Zealand, and caused such a rebuff to labour there: Tiny l shearers had aimed chiefly at preferouco for unionists, and they had been defeated in this and subsequent strikes; It was the discovery that owing to the existence of contracts to shear certain sheds they would be liable to prosecution for criminal conspiracy if they re-. i fused, that crippled them in their first great dispute, and when tlwy; were ready to renew the battk*the maritime strike, trom which,:! they had expected so ranch;: had died out. The shearers struck withgreat determination, and for-, five I* months they kept the colony .of Queensland in a state of the greatest anxiety. They were armed and at; one time one thousand of them wereencamped, to the terror of tants of tho locality. After then* second strike, in .1893, some of thi leaden; were prosecuted for conspiracy, and sentenced to terms of impriaGruuent up * ti three years. The next Important; strike was in the silver and-lead-mines j t«t Broken Hill, which was very reAl mote from the settled parts of tjfe colony of New South' Wales. AgM?; the leaders were sent to gaol, but jam. of them were elected members.of tUifi Colonial Parliament as sjoa ftrtjtajp were released. • r 1 THE DAWN OF ARBITRATION | Such events as these, which 'wert;really novelties in tho colonies, had a? great influence on the public, mind,! and it was felt that something to be done to force the disputants in,: labour quarrels to come together with' a view to a settlement. It occurred-1&$ mine colonials, to Mr Kingston >in South Australia, and'simultaneously to himself in New Zealand, that the: voir mitary systems ot arbitration in fore* in England and America might "prci vide a solution of the difficulties if in addition to what was provided in England they could give legal power to the decisions of the tribunals About the same tim 3, in Melbourne, .Messrs Maugher, Peacock, Strong, and Dear kin, with others were working out ft .scheme under which .State tribunals could be empowered to stamp out sweating in some of the worst regu* lated industries. The first Bill which was drafted and printed with the object of making arbitration compulsory was prepared by Mr Kingston and banded by him to a Royal Commission on stakes'and lurks-out in the larJiir end of the year 1800. It was afterwards embodied, with sohie alterations, in an Act of the New South Wales Parliament, passed about, 1595, but proved to bo almost unworkable and fell into disuse. In 1691 he (the speakeft found himself face to face same problem in New Zealand, deayoured to-meet it by a Bill-wKc-i after many redraftings and number of alterations and a : s—ires' years' battle, ultimately became-law* under the name of the Industrial Coa-j ciliation and Arbitration Act of IS9J; Ths appointment of a :....' JudgSt" of the \ Supremo Court "as ; 7Pm? sident of the ' Arbitration .Coajttwas insisted upon by Parliaments; against his%ishea, as it was felt that $ penon of the highest standing.'.."srig necessary, if this extraordiruiry:.iawij novel court was to be clothe*vt-witlK proper prestige. Personally, ha did;jwlf : actively On the was glad to see such an appointmenfe; decided on, though he jections on the part, of Judges ; jtffjt|lii Supreme Court to occupying ;fpS|f|;! difficult and invidious • " 'wmM.