COLONIAL STATE TRIBUNALS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 87, 14 April 1910, Page 4

COLONIAL STATE TRIBUNALS.

MR. REEVESS LECTURES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 4th March. Continuing his addreenes at tho London School of Economic." on Tuesday, .Mr. Reeves traoed the progress of legislation from tho period of the great change at the beginning of the nineties. Up to 1890, <he said, Labour in the colonies was dominated by tho old trades union idea that after all the strike was it* greatest and uioet valuable weapon, and that as it perfected its organisation it would be able to make use of it ia a manner that it had not done before. Now, impelled by the way© of Socialistic feeling that was sweeping over the colonies, it decided to take a more active and direct ehuro in politics. The importance of the battles of 1890 lay not merely in the number of men engaged—because England and Amem-a could easily throw them into the shade in that respect— but in the spirit displayed and the uncompromising aim* of some of the Labour unions, and the manner in which they were met by t.he employers. He traced the interesting episodes of the great hheurcrs 1 dispute in Australia, whicL had led indirectly to the maritime strike whkAh spread from Australia to New Zealand und laueed such a rebuff to Labour there. Tho shearers had aimed chiefly at preference for unionists, ,and they had been defeated in thin and subsequent strikes. It was the discover}- that owing to the existence of contracts to shear certain sheds they would bo liable to prosecution for criminal con^piraxiy if thoy refuted that crippled th/em in their fh»t great dispute, and when tJiey were ready to renew the 'battle the maritime strike, from which they had expected bo much, had died out. Tho shearers »truck with great determination, and for five months they kept the colony of QueorwJand in a fctato of the greatest anxiety. They were armed, ana at on© time one- thousand of. them were- encamped to the tenor of the inhabitants of tho locality. After their *ocond strike in 1893 some of bh* leaden were prosecuted for conspiracy and 1 sentenced to terms of imprifcorunont up to three years. Tho next important *trik© was m the silver and lead mines at Broken Hill, which was very remote from tho settled parts of the colony of New South Wale*. Again the leaders wero »«ent to gaol, but two of them were elected members of the colonial Parliament aa toon a» they were released. THE DAWN OF ARBITRATION. Suoh evcnls ns thcee, which weio really novelties in the colonies', had a great influence on the public mind, and It was felt that something ought to be done to force" ihe disputants in Labour quarrels io come together with a view to fi settlement. It occurred to some colonials, to Mr. - Kingston in South Australia, and simultaneously to himself in New Zealand, .that the voluntary systems of arbitration in force in England and America might provide a solution of tbe dlUficultics if in addition to what' was provided in 'England they could gjvo legal power to the decisions of the triboiuJi. About the came time in Melbourne, Messrs. Mauser, Peacock, Stnortg, and Deakin, with others were working out a-t-oheme- under which State lnritmnala could be empowered to stamp out treating hi some of the woree resrufatod inductile*. Th« firtt Bill which wa*-draftod and printed with tho object of lmk'mg arbitration compulsory wai* pmpnecvr by Mr. Kingxton, nnd handed by him to a Royal C( niiiiL^sion on striken and lorks-out in the hitter end of the year 1890. It ww a-ftorwaids embodied! with ccuic alterations in an j Act of Oie New South Wale« Pailiu- ! tnent, pained about 1895, hut prmed to be almost unworkable, and fell into disuse. In 1891 he (the speaker) found | himflelf face- to -face with the .«amc problem in New Zealand, and endeavoured to meet it by a. Bill which, after many redrafting* and an infmito number of alterations and a three year*' bat Up, ultimately became lnw under tho name of the liidustnatl Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894. The appointment of ft 'judge of <tßio Supreme Court as. president of the Arbitration Court wn* insisted upon by Parliament, us it wa* felt that a person of th«> highest ntondiftK was neot«*ary if UfU extraordinary and* novel court was to be clothed- with proper pte!*ige. Per-sona-Hy, he did not activity object. On the contrary, hf t«xtt«j^ad to iw such an appotntoreni cleeidsfl on, though h" anticipated •obyMiion* on tho part ot' judgtw-af the Hufnwno Crmni to cm* np\ - ing «uth n drflktrlt- and invfdtous po.M tiort The re*t of the lectuiie-w.xs devoted- to a description of tiu* now*** of Ufcern»t N«w 2**kad lOfctu and Wrfe, and some comments o&tthejr.work.'if.