OUR LABOR LAWS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9296, 25 July 1901, Page 5

OUR LABOR LAWS.

Working of the Arbitration Act. Judge Backhouse's Report United Press Association , By Electric Telegraph — Copyright. (Received July 25, 9.20 a.m.) Sydney, This day. The report of. Judge Backhouse concerning his enquiries into the working of the Compulsory Arbitration Act in New Zealand has been tabled in the Assembly. The writer says :—" Tha Act has prevented strikes of any magnitude, and has on the whole brought about better relations between employers and employes than would exist if there had been no Act, It has enabled an increase of wages and , other conditions favorable to workmen, which nnder the ci cumstances of the colony they are entitled to, to be settled without that friction and bitterness of feeling which otherwise might have existed.

The report adds that the effect of the Act has been undoubtedly to make the public pay, generally, more for the products of industry, the price of which has been regulated by a board or court when the tariff is high enough or other conditions occur to prevent foreign competition. The report goes on to say : —" The New Zealand Arbitration Act has enabled employers, lor a time at least, to know for a certainty the conditions of production, and therefore enables them to make contracts with the knowledge that they will be able to fulfil them. Indirectly this has tended to a more harmonious feeling among the people generally, which must work for the weal of the colony. A very large majority of the employers of labor whom I interviewed favor the principle of the Act. The awards generally have been in favor of the workers, therefore it is easy to understand that the Unionists to a man believe in the ActC and the nonUnionists, so far as my observation goes, find no fault with it." I Judge Backhouse concludes his report:—" While the effects of the Act so far are good the time has not yet come when it can be' said with any certainty that the measure wil provide the solution of all labor troubles. Since it oame into operation in New Zealand everything has been in favor of increased emolument and an amelioration of the conditions of labor, and there cannot be the slightest doubt that wages would have risen if there had been no Act. But when lean years come, as come they must, when there will be a curtailment instead of an expansion, then, and not till then, can anyone speak .with authority as to whether the principle involved is workable or not."