OUR LABOUR LAWS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1911, Page 2

OUR LABOUR LAWS.

VIEWS OF MR. M'LAREN, M.P. Mr. David M'Laren, M.P., takes strong exception to tho speech recently delivered in Wanganui by Mr. Wm. Pryor, secretary of tho Employers' Federation. Mr. M'Laren stoutly defends existing labour legislation, holding that many of tho industrial troubles that have arisen would have arisen had the Conciliation and Arbitration Act not been in existence, because the causes of those troubles lay outside the Act itself. The great increase ill land values that had taken place throughout the Dominion had reacted on the cost of living which people had to meet, and that necessarily engendered a spirit of unresb amongsb tho working classes, for which bho Conciliation and Arbitration Act was in no respect responsible for whatever, The assertion that trades unionism was in the hands of extreme Socialists was quite untrue. The action -of a comparative few amongsb the workers of the country should not be confused with the quiet judgment of the mass of trades unionists who are nob extreme Socialists or extremists in any sense whatever. The statement that the New Zealand Federation of Labour, otherwise the Miners' Federation, upheld a policy of strikes, had been denied by the leaders. LABOUR AND SOCIALISM. The (statement that the New Zealand Labour party, the statement that ib wao a Socialist organisation in disguise was, in Mr. M'Laren's view, somewhat weak criticism, seeing that the party's, constitution and_ platform, was widely circulated, and ib stated plainly therein the purpose of the. party was to maintain upon the statute book the progressive legislation that had been passed, and to move further >on the lines of public ownership, which was certainly not a now principle in the practical politics of New Zealand. "It is not exactly the little terms > used by Mr. Pryor that I take exception to," adds Mr. M'Laren, " as his sbught-bo-be-conveyed imputation thai the Now Zealand Labour party and the trades unionists of New Zealand are working in support of revolutionary proposals on the lines of Continental Socialism. That representation is an utterly unfounded one, and not in the least in keeping with the true character of our Labour movement." THE LAST SESSION. Referring to Labour legislation passed last session, Mr. M'Laren challenges Mr. Pryor, or anyone else, to show where the Acts of lasb session havo proved a burden on tho people of the country, or in any respecb have had a detrimental effect upon th© industries of th© Dominion. , Mr. M'Laren considered it bo be most remarkable thab Mr. Pryor, in dealing with tho position of industries, leaves out of sight the importanb fact that land speculation had been rampant in this Dominion for years; that when high prices for staple commodities wero ruling in the Old Country it had been easier to get returns from land investments, and therefore men of wealth had been more > disposed to withdraw from manufacturing industries and go in foi investments which might secure ■ them an 'easier and quicker return. Concluding, Mr. M'Laren abates :— I "The Labour movemenb in this country I can afford to smile at criticism such as Mr. Pryor's, which deals entirely in generalities and_ avoids the business method of specifically naming tho statutes which should be repealed. Vereonally. I consider it. is not honest politics for anyone to indulge in diatribes against the humanitarian legislation of our country and avoid the responsibility of a direct issue by general innuendo."