THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 282, 21 August 1908, Page 6

THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Mr. Herdhan's pungent criticism of the Arbitration Act and the Government's weak-kneed refusal to administer its penal

provisions will , stimulate public interest in the amending Bill that should shortly be sent on to the House by the Labour Bills Committee. To judge from some current newspaper criticism thero is still a goocl deal of confusion in some quarters respecting the situation with which Parliament has to deal. We discussed recently tho astonishing suggestion of our evening contemporary that the Government should evade the question, and wc urged that such an indecent climax to a discreditable policy would not be tolerated by the country. What was required, wo said, was the repeal of the existing Act, or a drastic amendment of it—an amendment that would place its enforcement in other hands than those of a Government which has shown itself willing to incur any degree of discredit rather than injure its grip upon the sweets of office. "One of our Dunedin contemporaries, the Olayo Daily Times, opposed the suggestion that the Government should shelve the Bill, but it incautiously stated its argument in such a way as to inf&r that it thinks that the amended Bill will end the intolerable injustice that at prosent ilows from tho Government's harefaced repudiation of its obligation to enforce tho country's laws. Our evening contemporary, has sought to justify its unhappy suggestion of postponement in the hope that " with better administration the existing law;.' will serve a few months longer."

In our view, compulsory arbitration as we know it—compulsory arbitration, that is to say, precedent to a subsequent perpetual constraint—is a failure, and the amending Bill is accordingly bad at the core. But the fact that tho amending Bill is bad in v essence, like the Act itself, does not prevent us from demanding that if the bad principle is to be rc r taincd, steps must be taken to reduce its ill effects as far as possible. It is sugr gestcd that Parliament has no time to deal with the matter this session! N6 time to save the country from the disj grace and the employers from the rank injustice of perpetuating a condition of things that has been under hot and continual discussion for over a year, and thq,t has occupied the public's mind more closely than any subject ever discussed in the Dominion's 1 history ! It is suggested that Parliament is incompetent" to deal with the problem! Incompetent to deal with a problem the solution of which is patent to everyone who has learned to think! Incompetent to devise a means of ending a shameful abuse! It is suggested that salvaticn can only comc from " a new Parliament, fresh from the people." A now Parliament, which caii have no greater competency than the present Parliament, and no fresh data exjcepting the now ignominies and new in? justices that will by then have accumur latcd under the unrevised law 1 Parliament has time to deal with tho matter, or must make time ;'Parliament is competent to end tho current abuses. The situation is a perfectly simple one. There are two courses open—the repeal of the Act or tho .drastic amendment of it. If wo cannot have repeal—in our judgment, repeal, or what will bo equivalent to repeal, is bound to come sooner or later— wo must at least have tho principle of the Act so altered in its setting that it will-be beyond the reach of strangulation by a Labour-ridden Government. However widely the critics may differ, they must. at least agree that any alteration that is effected nuist start from tho fact— which nobody now disputes—that good administration cannot be looked for from a quarter that has political relations with any class affected by the Act.

With fcliis truth as a starting point, Parliament should find it perfectly easy to deal with tho question. If the principle of tho Act is to be retained, let its operation be in every direction made automatic. We do not believe that we shall have perpetual pcacc under any system of penal coercion: wc should, under an automatic Act, at least get justicc. Ultimately, no doubt, the Act would break down under the load of its labours. It can only be propped up by injustices and betrayals of trust. The Government should be glad to escape from its present awkward situation, in which it is forced to choose between public censure on tho one hand and Labour wrath on the other. There is in the Bill the beginnings of automatism, in the sensible "suspension " clause originally suggested by Mit. \V. Fkaser in a letter to The Dominion many months ago. Parliament should insist on the extension of the automatic character of the Bill. Our evening contemporary ridiculed the OUir/o Daily Times's suggestion that the Minister foii Labour, who has a gun which lie is afraicf to fire off, should be presented with a cannon. But is there no other choice i Is there not such a thing as a spring! gun? A singular feature of some of tkti

newspaper criticisms of the Act is the failure of the critics to realise that the employers of the Dominion are suffering a grave injustice. They have no remedy against strikes. They arc forced to obey awards which their employees may disobey at will and with impunity. They arc, in fact, the victims of a colossal false pretence. But tlio employer, of coursc, is trash anyway. Why should he bo considered at all ? Why should his naked exposure to unchecked lawlessness stand in the way of the Government's comfort, or be considered a reason against postponement ! We fcol confident that even the Government will shrink from going to the country as a Government incapable of administering the law and incapable or afraid of amending it. No doubt an attempt will be made to palm off a bogus amendment on the public. Our evening contemporary suggests as much. But the public is not so simple as to be deceived by any further derelictions of duty. What will'satisfy Parliament or the Government will not necessarily satisfy the public, and to encourage rtny hopes to the contrary will bo a cruel kindness to the people who will go to the country _for judgment.