EXTREMISTS BLAMED

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 105, 31 October 1923, Page 17

EXTREMISTS BLAMED

COALMINERS AND THE ARBITRATION COURT. (BI TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.} CHRISTCHURCH, 50th October. "I see that a committee has been setup in Westport to endeavour to devise means by which an amicable settlement might be effected," said the Hon ti. J. Anderson (Minister of Mines) to-night, regarding the mining trouble. "I shall appreciate anything they can do to bring about a settlement of the trouble." "The fact of the matter," the Minister continued, "is that the dispute has been brought about by a desire on the part of the extreme section of the miners to kill the Arbitration Court, and by a desire on the part of the employers to retain it. My opinion, looking "at the matter impartially as chairman of the conference which sat at Reefton, and having heard all arguments for and against the trouble, is this: I am perfectly satisfied that there is only one means of adjusting difficulties between employers and employees, and that is the means provided by the Industrial Conciliatibn and Arbitration Act. It is quite possible that the difficulties in this case might be. arranged if there was no Act, but it is just as likely that they would not be, because whoever was chairman might have to decide; on points upon which neither party would quite agree. In my opinion, there is no more competent man to act as chairman than the -President of the Arbitration Court, Mr.. Justice Frazer, whose vast experience and knowledge of economics and peculiar personal qualities make him the ideal man to adjudicate on industrial problems."