THE COUNCIL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 240, 3 July 1908, Page 9

THE COUNCIL.

' the arbitration act. ' SPEECH BY THE HON, j. R. SINCLAIR. " LABOUR HAS NOT PLATED THE ■ GAME."' Tho debate. on the Acldress-in-Bep]y was ; continued in the Upper House yesterday af- . ternoon. , , , .'. . J/n. ,- Tho Hon. J..R. SINCLAIR (Otago),at the outset of.his speech,, paid a. tribute of regret, and esteem to tho memory of; the late Hon. C. O. • Kingston, whom he 'characterised as one of the pioneers of compulsory arbitration in, Australasia. . ,; Li regard to tho present relations between Capital |and Labour in this country', Mr. ; Sinclair asked whether tho' attitude ■ of Labour, to-day ,was. not like that , of Capital in the past—" Got most for least." 1 If:so,-what must,bo the outcome? He favour'ed,.the::highest;. wages. and'.tho .shortest working: hoursconsistent with the : development and; security of our industries.-. When wages were, unduly forced up, • however,. the employer-must-pay ;the .increase- out of pro- , , fits, or recover it >from -tho consumer, and this was'not always_ possible.There'was'a: tendency for' somo-industries, to be crushed' out of and this would not suit, either party. Moreover, an iiicreaso in the' cost of commodities, would diminish sales, and ', thus injure producers and workers. ' Ho be-' , lieved' that'/what I 'was ; now"'required was-a meana of increasing the : .productive power of Labour. The dead level which the. existing system had induced among tho workers' should bo replaced by- a - system . which would furnish them, with,incentives to : excel.; In this, country'we had accepted tho principlo of protection. to enable our industries to pay good wages in, spite of tho Jo,w wages--in other countries. But protection . had its limits, and ho thought it could hot' bo increased much more in ■ this; country. Was that any 'reason why the workers should flout' the-Arbitration Act and forsake -the party so much for.them? . Criticism of Mr. Rlgg'o Proposals. . ' • He thought that, when the members of e. union wont ; oil strike the' preference accorded them should; bo cancelled, and in 1 - y extreme, cases 'the: acts of strikers should bo treated a3 the acts of the union. Tho Hon. Mr. Rigg, in. the particularly able address which lie delivered on tho \ previous day, suggested that respect for awards should ' be obtained by causing security to be given by the parties. "The-success of that plan would depend on' the unions controlling their members. But rhad they done' so in tho past?. Mr.. Rigg's ■ whole • purpose, was'to restore the lost confidence of the workers 1 in tho . Court. But ought the workers' to have lost? that, confidence? They had confidence enough in the' Court as long as it gave thom all they wanted. As for tho judges of the Court, they had all' been men who .were , an ornament to their profession and their country. The workers . had not played the game; 'Thoy had not obeyed the awards to which they had agreed .when they ■ wero made. . They'had not been fair to those who represented them in 'Parliament, when the Act was passed, to the; employers; nor to their ,own representatives l on the. Court. It appeared likely that it would soon be impossible to find any self-respecting man who would consent to represent the workers on tho Arbitration Court. The Humanitarian Spirit.It was futile for the workers to ask for more than tho industries of the country ; vould " yield them. Figures from the bal-ance-sheet of the Blackball Coal Mining Company, as published recently, wero quoted by the lion, member in this connection. Tho industries of the Dominion were not so prosperous as. they, wore, often thought to be, and this; had: been proved by tho hon. tho Attorney-General in tlio great speech which he delivered'recontly in Wellington. Tho • worker who used only ono hand know very well he could not compote against him who used both; nor' could the producer who paid higher wages and allowed shorter hours than his oversea rivals compete against them without assistance. Henco protection, which was justified by the general improvement which-it led to in the condition of large

numbers of tlio people. This was an instance of tho humanitarian spirit which was . sa strong in this country, and which conferred such great benefits on tho workers. Onr education system, the efforts'.of. tho .Agricultural Department, maternity homes, advances to settlers and workers,' old ago pensions wore evidences of such a spirit,' and New Zealand had well been called tho workers' paradise. God forbid that revolutionary "Socialism should tako root in a country where tho workers wore so blessed, where individual enterprise had dono; so much without injuring tho Stato, and where class/ bitterness was. so largely unknown. 1 In our well-balanced social structure thero n-as no place- 1 for tho advocate of. revolution. In, this young community there, wero 110 Pyrenees' between Capital and Labour.' The worker of to-day might be tho employer -of tc-morrow. Our systems wero not perfect, but let us not agitate upon linos that Svero only in place .in older and qiiite. different countries. , In no country wero. the various Sections of society less far apart than here, and they wore coming closer overy day. AVo could offer _to the people better condit-iona than Socialism could promise them in EngThe colonial worker, was whole, and needed not tho Socialist physician. (Much applause.) -. ' .. OTHER SPEAKERS. ; The ; Hon. \V. W.' M'CARDLE warmly eulogised tho speech just delivered. He did not know when lio- had lieard ono .that -so oamo liomo to- his judgmont. :He went 011 to speak of tho vast resources of the King Country. He stated that, the :settlers who 'lad bought thoir own grass-seed at tho time of -last summer's , bush fires had been promised a remission' of,rent, as a sot-olf against tho assistance: given by . tho Government to others in tho purchase of seed. This pro-, iniso had not j'et been fulfilled. ■ Mr; Rigs and tho Lawyers. The Hon. J. B. CALLAN (Otago), in a reference to !thp -Arbitration Act, deprecated the' statement' iti'the Hoii.-Mr. Rigg's speech' to the effect that-a practising lawyer elevated to tho Arbitration Court bench' would bo influenced by professional, considerations. - The Hon; J. Rigg: That's hardly correct. ' "The Hon. Mr. Callan went on to say that Mr.' Rigg's actual: statement 1 at any' rate closely resembled his version of it. Such an objection,would apply to the, appointment of any barrister to a judgeship of the Supremo Court, and it was an unwarranted slight upon a groat profession.' At present, the most experienced judge could not give the workers confidence in tho Court. 'He earnestly hoped that the measure to be introduced in another place would,' when passed, be loyally obeyed. As for dissatisfaction, .it existed 'after every ' decision of the Supreme Court, but we heard 'little ..of, it, because the defendant was usually. only, one party.. A Councillor: Ho can't'striko. A Frank Confession. ■ •Mr. Call an . went on to pronounce , his hearty approval of tho re-appointment of tho High.. , Commissioner. . (Hear, hear.) In connection with, the- destruction of . the .Parliamentary buildings, Mr. CaUan said that he approached the', subject' with soma delicacy, because, during last session ho had spoken -of insanitary condition of tho place, and expressed the opinion'that the best , thing that could happen would be its destruction by fire. . He had added that: ho hoped this would not occur during the-session, and,, strango to say, only a few days of .-the recess had passed' when- tho /building'actually was. burned' down. .(Laughter,).; Ho desired ,to state that lie'was absolutely innocent of what some of his. friends had suggested in' this ' •connection. (Laughter and applause.) • On the motion of tho Hon. :J. T. Paul, tho debate was'adjourned, arid the Council rose at' 3.55 p.ih. '■ ■ '-