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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16787, 19 March 1920, Page 6

The Election Court has unseated Mr Masters, who defeated Mr J. B. Hine by n very narrow margin at tho general election, in the Stratford contest. Tho ground for the Court's decision was that Mr Masters, apparently unwittingly, was guilty of an illegal practice in providing music and pictures at ono of his meetings. Tho election has accordingly simply been declared void, and Mr Masters remains eligible for election. No doubt he will again be a candidate, and it will bo interesting to see what case ho puts before the electors. Tho Liberal Party is dono for; it will never again, in the shape in which it went to tho polls last December, amount to anything at all. Of course, the Liberals will deny this. But tliey can support their denial only by telling us what practical programme their Party stands for which only their Party can carry out.

In tho essay which we deal with in our leading article to-day, the interesting fact is made plain that the wages of unskilled Labour have increased in a greater degree than the wages of skilled labour. Mr Clinkartl divides tho workers whose ray is fixed by award into five groups, and the increases in their wage rates between 1905 and 1919 have been as follows: — workers engaged in food distribution, 44.19 per cent.; metal-working trades, 44.04 per cent.; building, 35.79 per cent.; miscellaneous manufacturing. 47.76 per cent.; miscellaneous, 63.46

per cent. He divides workers into fhe skilled, the semi-skilled, and tlie unskilled. and his tables show that tho percentage increases in the wages of tlie three groups between IW3 and IDIO have been as follows:—Skilled., 40.; semi-skilled. 53.00; unskilled, 52.42.

Commenting upon these figures, Mr Clinkard savs:—

This tendency towards the destruction of the relative superiority of the position of skilled workers ha* undoubtedly boon due in large measure to the fact that in Xew Zealand unskilled worker's a rr.rtieularjv large proocrtion of the industri-d communitv. with the result that their collective power, as evidenced in industrial agreement':, is nurh greater 'hail that of the sk'lled trades. Xew Zealand is e=sentia!lv a country dependent upon its primary production; there are no large secondary industries: and. apart from agricultural and na" 1 - tora' worker-; (who are larrrelv independent farmer®), the wacre workers are to n considerable extent enrraged in the work of transport and retail di=fi'i'ition. Coricpqvently, the growth of inron'sm under the stimulus of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Aets brought a greater doi'ro" of advancement to the large unions of unskilled workers than was gained hv the small groups of skilled tradesmen."

They are only a minority who arc actively interested in tho rabbit problem. but one does not need to know or care anything about rabbits to feel interested in the message relating to the prosecution of landowners in Centra] Otago on charges of failing to destroy rabbits. The Magistrate, in convicting and fining the defendants, said that lie had no discretion in the matter. "The power was absolutely in the hands of inspectors, who had onlv to swear that they visited any area affected, and that in their opinion sufficient and neccssary steps were not being taken to destroy rabbits, and a conviction must follow." It is not a great nnd glorious kingdom over which ho rules, but the rabbit inspector plainly possesses powers more complete and unchallengeable than those of any potentate anvwhere. His opinion is tho law. We suppose that the Agricultural Department could give excellent reasons why this is tho only means of dealing with the rabbit problem—Departments can always give excellent reasons for anything. But it is astonishing that at this timo of day anybody should be entrusted with tho powers enjoyed J)y a rabbit inspector. Ho is the only person alive, we should say, who can truthfully say, "The law? lam the law."