THE GULF AND BRIDGE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 9, 11 January 1912, Page 3

THE GULF AND BRIDGE.

Speaking of industrial legislation, Dr. Schone likened the Arbitration Court to a bridge dividing a gulf between employer and employed. It was a hridge, and really emphasised the gulf. Labour seemed to think that Capital bad by far the best of it, 'and, the most natural thing for anyone when a bridge existed was to cross it, but .that did not remove the gulf. Now, having got all the Court could giv«, Labour was prepared to dispense, with, the bridge. It was clear, then, that the division between employer and employed had not been dosed by the Arbitration Court. The Arbitration Act secured industrial peace for**- twelve years, but now, when Labour saw that the Court could grant no more, there came strikes and industrial uneasiness was prevalent throughout the country. New Zealand was> a country of dear labour, but if she was to carry the' large population she aspired to carry, then she must in largo part become a manufacturing country for home consumption and export. But this could not be unless New Zealand could sell as cheaply and offer' goods of equal quality as the other nations of the world, where, it must be remembered,, labour was much cheaper. In great part the high cost of living was attributable to the high wages, so that the workman did not receive tho full benefit of the increases in wages that he had obtained from time to time. The view, too, that the least possible work must be done for the highest possible wage obtainable, tho attitude of hostility to the employers* interests, could only result in impaired efficiency, for work cheerfully don© was the besfc work in- point ol quality.