OFFICIALISM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 119, 16 November 1911, Page 3

OFFICIALISM.

TOO MUCH IN NEW ZEALAND. iTHE STRIKE CURSE. [BT t«LEO*APH— SPECIAL TO TXI POST.] CHRISTCHUBCH, This Day. Mr. J. A. Frostick, who has returned to Christchurch after attending the annual meeting of the Otago Employers' Association in Dunedin, Etates that there were- some- interesting debates. Discussing tho present industrial position witli a reporter, Mr. " Frostick said that it was only right that employers should realise the aspiration of the workers to improve their status in fho world, but the workers on thoir part must be prepared to meet the employers. If the employers were to give every consideration to the demands of tho legitimate Labour Party it ninst dissociate itself from the Revolutionary Socialists, who simply delighted in war and were looking for trouble all tho time. At the present time the Labour movement was led to a very large extent by men whoso principal qualification for leadership was the gift of speech. Many of these leaders had acquired only a superficial knowledge ot those principles which he believed if properly applied must result .in the uplifting of the race, but in consequence of their lack of knowledge the great' masses of the workers were too frequently led into strikes which, instead of bringing about the desired result, led to greater poverty and distress, and the honest workers often looked in Vain foremen who would assist them in their desire once and for ever to banish the gaunt spectre of poverty from the lives of those who were willing to work. There were in New Zealand amongst the workers a small section of men wlio delighted in industrial war, and in their luet for power and notoriety they did not hesitate to advocate even on the slightest pretext a stoppage of tho industries of tho country. He unhesitat- '■ ingly said that those men were a menace to the public weal, and although they had many, followers it must be said that the good sense of the great majority of workers had generally prevailed against the strike curse as far as New Zealand ' was_ concerned. Although they had avoided strikes, however, the arbitration law bad been ridden almost to death. The forceful demands' of Labour leaders on the one hand and the lamentable lack of unity of employers* on the other, hand had forced the Court into giving decisions so onesided that to-day the very existence of the Court as at present constituted was threatened. One fatal mistake was made when it created a trade wage such as in the building trades, which was based upon a supposed average ability. There could "be no euch thing as average ability. It-! was as impracticable aa equality of wealth. The trade wage had destroyed the . incentive to excel. The industrial war. in Now Zealand, which for the past eighteen years had been waged through the Arbitration Court, was against the public of New Zealand, and not against the employers. Public opinion would be in favour of every genuine worker receiving for his labour sufficient to secure a reasonable margin for enjoyment over and above the pressing needs of himself and his family, but only as the result of the intelligent use of his skill and industry. If there was anything the employers could do within proper and reasonable limits to improve the position of the workers, let them do it without the interference of officials. There had been far too much officialism in this country.