THE MINERS' TROUBLE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 106, 28 January 1908, Page 6

THE MINERS' TROUBLE.

We publish this morning the confirmation of, our anticipation of yes* ;erday that iho Premier and Mr. MiL !ar would secure a, peaceable settler :nent of the trouble at the Westport !on,l-iaines.. It ia highly satisfactory, md everybody will rejoice that a most lisi.urbi.ng situation has been ended, md in their capacity as mediators the i J reniiejr his colleague a,r§ .-deserying'of compliment, although it is a natter fpy question whether they did more than would ultimately have been lone with thei? presence. Here, However, compliment must endi_ and, Eree from the fear of a; serious indus;rial disturbance, thinking people will lave time to realise tKat the settlement ;ias , been obtained at a very heavy jost'pf principle, and that the; whole system of: industrial arbitration has sustained ■enormous injury. Two lamentable facts emerge from, the situation, , The Arbitration Court has no onger any' final authority in the de:ermination of the " hours and wages" n the industries cpmmitted to its care, md the machinery of arbitration, vluch Ministers have so .often and so loudly declared to be equal to any situation,' is to be set on one side and •eplaced by Ministerial mediation. The oroper sequel to this double denial of ;he authority and the. efficiency of the Arbitration Act should be its formal repeal. " _ , , In several recent articles we have liscussed the impropriety and the danger of the precedent set by the Col.vin Blot, and it is unnecessary here to lemonstrate afresh the evils of a parliamentary' usurpation f pf the funcr tions which, if justice is to prevail in industrial conditions'; can be properly sxercised ■ only by the .tribunal specially created for the purpose. It is the extraordinary action of the Premier' and Mr, Millar that calls for notice at present. Here was a gi'ave situation arising out pf the rebellion pf a body Df workers against an Arbitration Court simple case for the inypcation of the law that the Ministry declared tq be powerful and efficient less than a agp, when the slaughtermen's strike 1 w&§ dealt with, Instead of leaving' the law to deal with the situation at Westport, the Premier and ' Mr. Millar hurried there with such precipitancy as to make it quite clear that neither respect for the law nor their own dignity or that of the Arbitration Court should be allowed to stand in the way of' protecting the Act from a practical test. "It- is under? stood," says a telegram from "Westport, "that the settlement has averted a prosecution of the men by the Labqur iJepartment for continued breach of award, ■ with ; possible 1 consequential complications," Clearly, the Premier Can be imagined as saying the dignity pf law and the dignity of the Arbitration Court are trifles cpmpared with such !} dreadful possibility as the prosecution of offending coal-miners and the still more terrifying apparition of " possible consequential complications." The Premier has done nothing less than condemn the Arbitration Act as a piece pf practical law, He has set a very evil precedent in letting it go forth that the Act will be disregarded until he has intervened as a private mediator. He has made it clear to the workers that if, by bungling its work; Parliament fails to carry out its intention of assisting Labour against the Arbitration Court, they can rely upon him to interfere in person. In short, lie has brought into contempt the whole machinery of arbitration. In his defence it niay be urged that he has merely followed the good example set by Mr. Lloyd-George in connection with the recent colliery troubles in England. The cases are utterly dissimilar. Mr. Lloyd-George, as a prominent and fair-minded statesman, volunteered, in a wholly unofficial capacity, to assist two private disputants to compose their differences. There was no law, no external authority of any kind, which could be invoiced in the matter. Had there been an Arbitration Act, Mr. Lloyd-George would assuredly have done nothing to interfere with its pperatipn. He would have'stood by the law. In New Zealand there exists ample legal machinery to deal with industrial troubles. Yet., for aii the respect that the Government has paid it, it might as well not have existed. We are, we repeat, gi ad that the troublo been tottlod, but the price has been enormous, and

law-abiding men cannot but cojitemr plate with alarm the'wrong which the Colvin 31pt and the .Ministeris).! madia* tion have done to the canon? of industrial ord?r. ' V ■;