The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1911. TRAMWAYS CONTROL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1070, 8 March 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1911. TRAMWAYS CONTROL.

When the Tramways Act wan passed last cession we expressed tho opinion that the municipalities would by no means resign themselves to tho Government's damaging invasion of their rights. No doubt they will bo prepared, by the time Parliament meets, to renew their protest against the Act, since time will not lessen, but will rather increase, the neces. ity for extensive modifications and repeals. In the meantime it is interesting to learn that tho local protests against the measure are fully endorsed by The Light Railway and Tramway Journal, which has i> world-wide reputation as the leading authority on tho management and government of electric tramway systems. Tho new Act figures very prominently in its issue ot January 13, and is very strongly condemned in two excellent leading articles. After a detailed explanation of tho amendments made by tho Labour Bills Committee, the Journal observes: ''The other clauses, as previously noted by us, virtually deprive the tramway owners (mostly municipalities) and their managers of all power, and place the control of the tramways in the hands of tho Minister for tho time being, he, in turn, being 'operated' by tho Labour party." It has not escaped tho notice of our contemporary that concurrently with the progress of tho Bill the tramway employees drew up a now scale of wages and conditions of labour for all grades throughout the Dominion, and a very important deduction is drawn by tho journal, in this connection, from tho success of the unions in persuading the 4 Government to pass an Act that is resented by the bulk of the population. "Success," it says, "and the knowledge that they can rquceic the Government has encouraged the men to formulate a sck-rae which would enforce one set of conditions for the whole of the tramways of the country. . . . "What with the provi-

sions of the Bill and tho new , regulations of tho men, it would almost appear.tii bo unnecessary henceforth to do other than allow the trade union to run all the tramways of the Dominion. Managers certain!}- appear to be deprived of all real power." That' is by no means the least of the objectionable things about the Act. Tha Ministerialist press openly admits nowadays, and even boastingly affirms, that it has 'organised Labour at its back. Furnishing the necessary support, the unions are not likely to show themselves less eager in tho future to exact a heavy price for it than they have been in the past. In a second article the Journal discusses, on the basis of some extracts from the evidence taken by the Labour Bills Committee, "the general tendency to assume that any man is as good ancl as competent as any other man, and the further tendency to act on (hat assumption" : "There is a widespread disposition, almost everywhere, to disregard all authority, to abrdgatc discipline, and to make all undertakings and all procedure a sort of 'go-as-you-' please competition, , in which numbers alone arc to count, and wherein the Devil is to take tho hindermost in the traditional manner." In Britain these developments arc restrained by the general common sense of the middle-class community, but in New Zealand the evil is growing rapidly and mischievously. The passago in thi evidence which inspired these observations was that in which the Hon. R. M'Kei.zie was examining Mr. Herbert Pearce, the Chairman of the Christchurch Tramway Board, with the idea of showing that anybody was fit for a seat on the Board. What Mr. M'Kexzie actually suggested was that a Board elected from the motormen ancl conductors would manage the Christchurch tramways "quite as well as business mcn, :, a-id that tho employees would be able to understand business transactions as well as tho existing management. The Journal points out in some detail the absurdities, which are indeed obvious enough, of Mr. M'Kenzie's idea; but it would not have been so greatly surprised that a Cabinet Ministi'i , should hold such a view had it known the sort of qualifications that are considered high enough for Ministerial office- in this country. Perhaps the argument that will most strongly appeal to the Government, however, is the.one which the Journal puts in thes/: words: "If the New Zealand Government sees fit to confiscate the properties of the various municipalities and hand, them over to tho management of it:;

BuiTiiucntKy, iippointoil liy (he pi-o--pondoniUiiß vote of one class of the (.•oiiinimiity, Uiat is nn concern of ours, but when New Zonkmd next applies for the loan of British money it is a fact which will warn British capitalists against supplying it."