THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 23 May 1908, Page 5

THE ARBITRATION ACT.

SPEECH BY PR FINDLAY

[PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WANGANUI, May 22. At the Opera House to-night, Dr Findlay; AfctCrney-General, delivered a speech on labor and ' the Arbitration Act. -He gave a Scholarly resume of the world's industrial systems. Speaking'of New Zealand's Arbitration Acts, Dr Findlay said it had entirely eradicated sweating, and so lotfg as it was on ? -tti$" Statute :Bpok it waft the best pro'teGtion the weaker body of the workers had against oppression, excessive hours, and insufficient wages. It had fo^ many years prevented strikes and secured industrial peace, and, if properly used in a spirit of conciliation, it would always prevent strikes. The At-torney-General said that the discontent with the Act was partly owing (a) to a declining lack of appreciation of its benefits; through- their long unbroken continuance ; (b) to the irreconcilable discontents of the revolutionary school who desired to abolish and no* improve our wages system; (c) to a tendency which had grown up under the Act of dead-level or uniformity of wage* for all in each trade, a result largely brought about by the way the Act had been used by those whose interests it was intended to serve ; (A) to the mistaken opinion that the increases in wages the Act has secured have been nullified by the Act causing a corresponding increase in the cost of, living. Dr Findlay said that as strikes and! lock-outs vitally affected the whole people, the State was entitled to prevent them by compulsion, whether the workers and employers liked compulsion or not. He was opposed to imprisonment of , strikers, for the reason that imprisonment, unless considered a disgrace, was not a deterrent, but rather glorified those whom it was intended to punish.