ARBITRATION AWARDS.

Evening Star, Issue 11697, 1 October 1902, Page 3

ARBITRATION AWARDS.

attack: on president cooper^ A MINISTERIAL jDEPENGEi : , [From Oua RJEPoaiEa.] WELLINGTON, October i;;. In the legislative Council yesterday "the. Hon. J. Rigg moved that the Government be requested to. take:into consideration 1 lie administration of the Industrie Conciliation and Arbitration Act by the Court of Arbitration. He thought that after the' protests made by the Waihi miners and resolutions passed by other unions regarding this matter, there was need for inquiry. Since Mr Justice Cooper had been preaident of the Court'eighteen awards had been delivered in Wellington, affecting .nineteen unions. Mr Rigg had been able to obtain official replies with regard to" the effect of twelve of these awards. Of the, twelve, one union was satisfied, one fairly' well satisfied, in a third .the majority were satisfied, while nine were very' dissatisfied, and in most cases the unions made strong comment on the nature of the awards... A general complaint was that S reference to unionists was refused by the ourt. In the typographical dispute injustice was done employers and employed alike, and in the sheet-metal workers' case the extraordinary step had been taken of exempting from the provisions of the award the Wellington Gas Company, who, though cited, had not been represented before tho Court. The Tailoresses's Union had spent over £I,OOO in trying_ to bring the Auckland conditions into line with the rest of the colony. If the Act had not been in force the employers could not have refused the demands of the Tailoresses' Union.' As the result of careful inquiry, he could see that whether the Act was to be a bad one or a good one depended on the impartiality of those called on to administer it. Since Mr Justice Cooper became President the Court had not in their awards shown a proper appreciation of the principles contained in the Act. Tho other two members of the Court had invariably disagreed, so that the President was called on to settle all cases. The country had been experiencing a; period of prosperity, but who could say "that the workers had had a corresponding share, of the prosperity? What benefit the men had obtained had been secured before Judge Cooper's presidency. He did not wish it thought that he doubted the integrity or good character of any member of the Court of Arbitration—be had the very highest respect for the President—but he said absolutely that where tho interests of large companies were at stake the Act was administered with a timidity that bordered on cowardice, and had in some cases led to very grave injustice. The Speaker (Sir H. J.-Miller) said be thought it would be better if Mr Rigg did not make personal reflections on the members of the Court.

Mr Rigg denied any intention of reflecting on any member of the Court of Arbitration, which caused the Hon. Mr Jennings to observe: " But you do it all the same." Concluding, Mr Rigg said that all he asked was that*rhe Act should be fairly and impartially administered. The Minister of Education did not think that Mr Rigg had made out a very complete case. The Arbitration Court were called'on to perform similar functions to the Supreme Court, and it was not desirable that such work should be reviewed in a semi-official manner. He (the Minister) doubted very much the wisdom of thus dealing with this matter in Parliament, and could not say he had any sympathy with the morion, though if it were carried it would receive due consideration.

The Hon. W. T. Jennings knew that, despite isolated caseSj there was a feeling of deep satisfaction with the work : of the Arbitration Court, and he quoted from the report of the Victorian Labor Commission which visited this colony to that effect. It would have been far better if some of the prominent leaders had endeavored to cement a better feeling between the workers and employers, instead of using tho machinery of the Conciliation Board and Arbitration Court to such an extent as' they had done in the past five years: Had that been, done, a better feeling would have exissted all round. He thought it was generally admitted that a more acute lawyer than Judge Cooper did not exist in New Zealand. His Honor had tho deepest'sym-' pathy with the workers, and could be relied on to base his conclusions on equity and justice.

The Hon. J. M. Twomey objected to the decisions of the Arbitration Court being dragged before Parliament for review. Ho bore testimony to the careful way in which the Court went into the details of all cases brought before them, and expressed the opinion that the Act was being administered in the best interests of the worker and the colony as a whole.

The debate was interrupted at this stage by the rule which obtains in the Legislative Council under which motions are intercepted at- 4 p.m.