The Hawera Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER- 4, 1928. INDUSTRIAL' ARBITRATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 4 September 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER- 4, 1928. INDUSTRIAL' ARBITRATION.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock In tfawera. Manair.. Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, MaDgatoki. Kaponga. Alton, TTnrleyville Patea. Waverlev, Mo_oia, Wbakamara. Ohangai, Ueremere. Prase! Bead, and Ararata.

Though, no plan has yet 'been evolved for the solution of -the problems which called into being the National Industrial Conference, it cannot foe said that New Zealand has not made some progress along the path to a more satisfactory state of affairs. This country, in common with many others, is still casting about for ways and means to settle the differences between capital and labour iu a manner which will ensure greater production and increased prosperity, but the fact that both parties are still searching for a way out is something which may justifiably foe placed to the credit side of the ledger. The Prime Minister’s decision to call another meeting of the conference, and the welcome that his decision has received from footh sides, in themj selves are cheerful auguries. During I the discussion in Parliament on the subject of the conference’s report, it was shown by representatives of. both labour and employers that the spirit of conciliation in which the delegates met at the last conference is not dead.. The willingness of -both parties to display patience, in addition to caution, is a most encouraging sign, for great patience and a broad tolerance will be necessary if a basis of something more than a mutually suspicious neutrality is |to be achieved. There is no royal road to the .settlement of this question, which involves the settlement of many related questions; the 'delegates will not be able to conjure out of thin, air the answer to all the problems with which they are faced. The discussions which took place ait the last meeting of delegates in Wellington are reminders that a. debate on the employers’ contention that the existing system of referring industrial disputes to a. Court of Arbitration, there to be decided, not OIL the ability of industry to pay, but on the Tight of everybody to a fair standard of living, merely opens the door to consideration of a host of other related points of which unemployment, immigration the dependence of the Dominion on its primary products and ou the goodwill of overseas markets, are not the least. Many well-wishers of the first conference believed that that meeting of representatives of capital and labour could accomplish much good if it but kept its primary object clearly before it and refused to be side-tracked into exploitation of class differences, but now the most that can be hoped for is that each side will have its mind opened to the difficulties which present real problems to the other, and, that machinery "will be sot up to continue for all time the good work accomplished in inducing the representatives of employers and 'employed to meet in a mutually 'helpful frame of mind. The negotiations which have been proceeding in England between capital and labour for more than two years have not resulted in the discovery of any royal road to industrial peace and prosperity, but they have, nevertheless, provided ai more 'hopeful outlook for the future of the Old Country than any other circumstances since the termination of the waT. The delegates Shave long since talked themselves through the stage in which little more than platitudes were uttered, and to-day there is in embryo a process which aims, with very good hopes of success, of throwing an equal responsibility upon employers and employees for the rebuilding of the trade which England has lost since the war. There has boon a. great, change for the better in the employers’ attitude towards labour, and I there has resulted ai readiness on. the I part of labour to learn that industry is something more than a form of employment which does not give a better standard of living merely because the owners arc ungenerous. 'Labour leaders at Homo have grasped the fact, that [Britain’s commercial supremacy lias I been assailed on all sides until her position in many fields is no longer supreme, and they have done an imj measurable amount of good in passing lon this knowledge to their followers. The outcome, so far, in. England has I been a proposal to set up a Parliament of industry to be known as the National Industrial Council, which in. its turn will appoint Joint Conciliation Boards on a Totally voluntary basis — all ideas of compulsory arbitration having gone by the board. Trade unionism is to be recognised as part of the ma-

C'hlnery, no longer to- 'be regarded, or to regard itself, ns the agency for. the throwing of sand into the bearings. Much still remains to be accomplished, but leaders of industry on both sides arc sincere in their belief that Great Britain is on the eve of better things industrially. If a similar optimism, based on equally good grounds, is the result, of the next sitting of the National Industrial Conference in New Zealand, there will be cause for allround congratulations.