LABOUR LAWS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 107, 7 May 1909, Page 2

LABOUR LAWS.

COLONEL WEINSTOCK'S VIEWS. The labour laws of New Zealand hava met with the approval of Colonel Harris Weinstock. special labour commissioner of California, who during tho past year has been making a tour of investigation into the industrial conditions of various countries of the world. On his arrival in New Zealand some weeks ago, he gave some preliminary views to a Post reporter, and now adds opinions derived from his enquiries in New Zealand. He does not find that such conditions as diminishing efficiency and lessening output can be attributed to the effect of the labour laws. The same trend exists in other countries he has visited. At the samo time the law could not be said to have Ereventod strikes, of which there had een 17 or 18 since it came into operation. Still, Now Zealand enjoyed a higher degree of industrial peace than any other country the Colonel had visited in his travels, unless it was Victoria. Nor had labour legislation decreased employment. Depression prevailed in many countries far more acutely than in Australasia. The law was not responsible either for prosperity or depression. It was a matter of crops and prices. Industrial war might exist side' by side with great prosperity. There was no doubt, however, that the arbitration laws had acted as a powerful deterrent against strikes, and in general was approved both by employers and men. The Colonel expressed admiration for New Zealand and its people. He had found the highest degree of prosperity, ne had come across except in California.. He left loir Auckland to-day to conclude his investigation's. "Hits report willj be forwarded to the Califor'nian Government, but the Colonel himself will not reach homo till late in October, as he intends to visit China, Japan, the Philippines, and Hawaii before his return.