WHERE WE MAY PROFIT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 36, 11 August 1930, Page 8

WHERE WE MAY PROFIT

After attending the International Labour Conference at Geneva the Hon. T. Shatter Weston is doubtful whether New Zealand should at present send a delegation regularly every year. In the statement of his views which we published on Saturday he points out that it is desirable to send the same men so that they may carry weight in the deliberations. This would not be easy at New Zealand's distance from Geneva. Moreover, this Dominion has reached a point in the development of industrial relations which is ahead of that attained by most of the nations taking part in the Conference. At the same time, Mr. Weston emphasises the desirability of the Government snd employers and workers' organisations keeping in the closest touch with the reports and questionnaires issued by the executive of the Bureau International dv Travail. This can be done regularly without any heavy expenditure, and if it can be done by the three parties—Government, employers, and workers—in co-operation it should yield valuable results. If the Government were to summon a further National Industrial Conference, that Conference might set up a small committee to study the reports issued from time to time from Geneva. From such a committee guidance might be obtained on some of the industrial issues which must sooner or later come before the Dominion. Such a committee could also advise the Government when it would be profitable for this Dominion to send a further delegation to Geneva.