THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 120, 13 February 1908, Page 6

THE ARBITRATION ACT.

When dealing with , the Premier's speech in Auckland last-week we noted that it contained no allusion whatever to the Industrial Arbitration Act Amendment Bill introduced into Parliament last session. It ■ is" now being stated in the south that it is understood that the Hill will not be re-in-troduced this year. ' Mr. Millar, speaking to a Christchurch interviewer on December 8 last, qualified his definite declaration that the Bill would be introduced in the' coming session by the announcement thatj as the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Act would be re-introduced; and as "he did not anticipate being able to get both passed next: session," he." was not in a position to.speak definitely" upon the prospect of the measure being actually passed into law. ' All the indications point, to the abandonment of the Bill during the currency of the present Parliament; Attention must therefore be directed to the serious position in which the Government now, stands with respect to the Arbitration Act. A contemporary, which was foremost in defence of the Government's recent interference' with the operation of the Act .in connection with the trouble at the ■ Denmaton mine, published this' week an article, saturnte'd with alarm, asking for information andreassurance upon the Governmsnt's intentions regarding an Act- that was causing discontent in the ranks of Labour, that-.was farcical as a means of conciliation, that was incapable, of securing enforcement of its awards, and that employers had ground 'to 'complain was become inoperative. We 'might with justice urge that a defender of the Government's attitude in the Denriiston trouble is hardly qualified to complain of the position which that attitude has assisted, in creating, but the issues are too grave to be made the subject of discussion' upon this or that critic's inconsistencies; . At the present moment there is riot a trades unionist in the country who does' not feel perfectly certain that Labour is at liberty to defy the Act, confident in the readirie-js of the Govcrhinent to suspend its operation arid to 1 set the Court aside in favour of Ministerial mediation; We have discussed this question very thoroughly in recont articles, and we need say no more upon the point than that the. Chairman of Directors of the Southland Frozen Meat Company, whose comments upon the slaughtermen's strike we reprint elsewhere, 'has summed up the situation 'in his. statement' that '.'the Government had compounded a breach of the law." The 'Conciliation Boards have, in most'cases, become a travesty upon commonsense as cogs of the industrial machine.' That, the Boards are no longer worth preserving is not only our opinion. It is the opinion of Mr. Millar himself. In the Christchurch interview: already referred to, lie said that "Conciliation Boards have been an absolute failure, and the whole question is going, to resolve .itself into true conciliation or no conciliation. If there is no desire for conciliation, the sooner the farce of dealing with'disputes, by the Conciliation Board is ended, and all disputes sent direct to "the Court, the belter it will'be-for all parties concerned." In general, no legislation, except that designed to meet an instant emergency, suffers materially from a year's postponement; but in the present case there . . are critical ■ elements calling for the attention of Parliament, this year. What guarantee has the public that the law would be enforced if a coal strike took place within the year? None. What confidence can the public have in the integrity of the Government as the defender of the Act when Ministers suspend its operation and rush, at any cost of dignity, to prevent its trial, and- when the Premier openly. talks of a better way of making the Act workable than by adhering to, its present provisions? Again, we • must say, none. If our surmise is correct, and the Government, whatever it nny say, does not intend to overhaul th i Act next session, its inaction is due entirely to its anxiety not to alienate the' votes -of Labour at; the coming election. For electioneering purposes, that is to say, the present lamentable spectacle of a superseded Court and Boards grown useless is to be allowed to continue.