OUR INDUSTRIAL LAWS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 143, 14 December 1922, Page 5

OUR INDUSTRIAL LAWS

INQUIRIES BY A JAPANESE

OFFICIAL.

Mr. M. Nagatani, Secretary o£ the Department of Home Affairs, Japan, was a passenger by the steamer TJlfrnaroa, which arrived at ..Wellington from Sydney yesterday. -Mi. Nagatani is visiting Australia and New Zealand with the object of investigating the working of our industrial ami social legislation and administration. He left Japan in September, and' has since conducted, his inquiries in Queensland, ,• New South Wales, and Victoria. He will spend about a week in Wellington/ will then proceed to the South Island, subsequently returning to Wellington, . and thence goes'' on to Rotorua and Auckland, after which he will return to Japan via Sydney. Although it is too early for him to express a definite opinion on the working of the industrial laws iv Australia, Mr. Nagatani, in a statement to-day, said he noticed, that t]ie statistics showed that there were more strikes arid lock-outs in those States in which thy Arbitration Court system obtained than in Victoria, where efforts were made to settle industrial disputes by means of conferences and mutual agreements. As already indicated, Mr. Nagatani has not gone far enough in his inquiries to say which system, in his, judgment, is likely to be the most successful in bringing about industrial peace. He has, however, noted the fact that, while wages are being increased, the arbitration system finds favour with the work-' era, but 1 when it comes to a time or condition of affairs when it is considered net.essary hy the Court to reduce wages or increase hours of •work-—well, the visitor has his doubts whether the arbitration system,is likely'to retain the confidence of the workers. In addition to ■ow> industrial system, Mr. Nagatani -is inquiring into various branches •p£ our social laws and their workjng s