Evening Post. SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1912. THE LABOUR CONVULSION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 23, 27 January 1912, Page 6

Evening Post. SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1912. THE LABOUR CONVULSION.

New Zealand is being plainly drawn into the world whirlpool of Labour trouble. Those student visitors from America and other countries, who have written essays and books about these islands as " the land of no strikes," have now to revise their deductions. Numbers of strikes have occurred during the past four years, and the threat of revolt ie ever in the air. Time has proved that Labour in New Zealand is akin to Labour in any other country by that toucb of nature which makes Labour eager to get as much as it can, either by right or by might. Years ago here, when the Conciliation and Arbi' tration Act came into operation, the gains for Labour were by right, as decreed by the statutory tribunal. In course of time, when the, tribunal did not satisfy Labour's increasing demands, the Arbitration Court was decried. The chorus of condemnation by certain Labour spokesmen has been loud during the past two years. The latest hostile criticism comes from Mr. W. Belcher, of the Seamen's Union, fresh from a victory gained in private conference with shipowners. In an interview with a representative of The Post yesterday, Mr. Belcher declared that the Act was "not of any earthly use" to the Seamen's Union, which had accordingly "turned it right clean down." He complains that the Court had a habit oi disregarding the weight of evidence in seamen's disputes. This is % statement to need, checking by independent critics familiar with the cases. For the present we wish 'to point to the peculiar reasoning in other portions of Mr. Belcher's statement. "It is beyond doubt," -he said, "that a majority of the unions in New Zealand — while they have been perhaps nurtured into existence by the operation of the Act — are now beginning to ' feel their feet.' They are beginning to realise the power that they have at their command, and they ate not going to allow a Judge or any other individual to dominate their interests." Moreover, he conceded a " beneficial effect " to the Act in the "stopping of sweating" and a "levelling up of general conditions." Any fair reader of Mr. Belcher's remarks must reach a conclusion that in the opinion 1 of Mr. Belcher the Act iB an excellent institution to enable unions to grow strong enough to do without the Act. The Act is a good thing to help the unions to get benefits, by right, until they are strong enough to scout the Court and exercise their might.' If .this is to be the permanent attitude of the Seamen's Union, the Waterside Workers' Federation, the Miners' Federation, and other large organisations, i New Zealand will wait long for industrial peace and proper industrial development. We are more and more convinced that a spirit of unreason is being fostered by some of the Labour spokesmen, and the effect of the turmoil thus created must ultimately be to injure the whole country, unless the reign of sanity is reestablished. Happily, not all the Labour leaders see eye to eye with the Semples, Hickeys, and Webbs, who now feel elated with the concessions secured from the shipowners. Thi6 week's issue of the Herald, described as the official organ of the New Zealand Labour Party, has an article entitled "Tall Talk and Mixed ileonomics," in which the term "rank nonsense" is frankly applied to "much of the stuff" voiced by representatives of the Ultra-Socialist Federation of Labour. "Just here," concludes the Herald, "we would remind these dogmatic doctrinaires that another of their own cloth, Charles Edward Bussell, has anathematised such efforts (the Federation's part in the waterside workers' dispute) in these terms (printed in bold heavy type) :—'lncrease: — 'Increase of wages is the most alluring, blinding, and deafening thing in the world. For a long time the workers of New Zealand thought it grand to have their wages pushed up every two years." Some of them are beginning to perceive that increase of wages is no advantage if it brings about a still greater increase in the price of everything they must buy. '" In an article the other day we rumitioned that the solution of the living problem goes beyond the raising of wages, which may give only a temporary advantage. Unfortunately, efforts are being made to concentrate the workers' attention on the mere increase of wages, to the exclusion of the fact that unless the country's production is proportionately increased the real cost of living, All round, will not be cheaper,