Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 30th. 1919. THE ARBITRATION PRINCIPLE.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 March 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 30th. 1919. THE ARBITRATION PRINCIPLE.

In the course of a reference to the principle of arbitration as a means to allay the industrial unrest and in regard to the changing attitude of Labor towards the situation which has developed a Melbourne paper considers it .is a favourable sign that thoughtful and moderate members of the Commonwealth Labour party are beginning to reconsider their attitude towards the law which purports ;to secure industrial peace, but has signally failed. The Arbitration Court lias <been a great and an important experiment in industrial legislation. It has had the effect of largely increasing the wages of operatives, and in some important respects reducing their hours. It has forced the employers into close combination, and lias thus made easy the forming of combines, or “honourable understandings,” by which the increased cost of production lias been passed on to

the general public. But indisputably notoriously, it has failed to secure industrial peace, and its rule has been coincident with a continuous growth of industrial unrest and increase in the number of strikes, It has, ip recent days, also produced a decided and most justifiable unrest among that large class of persons to whom its oppressive results are “passed on,” and to whom it can offer no relief. Up to the present time the middle class with its fixed incomes daily diminishing in purchasing power, has fitted well the ancient description, “Issachar is a. strong ass crouching between two burdens.” The ass is now however, growing very restive and the mere abolition of the Arbitration Court would not give it the relief which it demands. Our industrial system has become so completely organised and specialised that comparatively small, but actually essential, groups of workers find themselves able by ceasing work to “hold-up” the community as effectually as a highwayman in former days used to “hold up” a

coach and rob the passengers because he was armed and they were not. I 't here seems to be a difficulty respeetj Jag the fiapdlipg of those groups of j "specialised tyrapjts’' of the community, for it is eyidenf that they may exist with or without an Arbitration Court. Just how they are to be controlled and restrained in the interests of the com muuity at large has not been solved as yet. It is certain, nevertheless, that the oppressed but resentful and awakening middle class on whom so much of the burden and so much of the inconvenience of the dislocation of trade and trading passes, will demand that a way be found to protect {he community. The time has arrived when the arbitration principle must he extended, apd instead of considering employer and employee only must add the third party affected —the general public. A court with this triangular object would he in ,i stronger position, and there would ho more hope of having its mandate enforced, 'I he solution of the industrial unrest will bp arrived at in the end by

I bringing tlie public jii+o actual part- | ner.ship with the settlement waijg, At , present the Arbitration Court may j grant conditions which increase the I Jiardlships of the large intermediate j class, and it is in that respect that the I principle as now applied is a serious danger to the well-being of the people. There happens to be, more than two sides to the question, and the third party will assist to adjust the balance better and lead to a more equitable , condition of affairs. By getting public opinion interested in a judgment , through directly studying the interests of the community, the verdict of the , court will have behind it the power to .enforce its decision and see that it is , maintained judicially in the interests of the people as a whole thus carrying . full conviction to the public at large.

At the Town Hall to-night a public meeting will bo held to prepare for the advent of the Prince of Wales to Hokitika. Not only has a groat honor been done this district, but a special favor has been shown in departing from the original programme to permit His Highness, including this portion of Westland in Jiis itinerary. Apart from what they owe to themselves as loyal citizens, the people owe it to the Government to rise to the occasion and make the celebration to mark the august visit a fitting one and in keeping witli the warm and cordial spirit of the West Coast which it has been ever the people’s delight to display. The present is a special occasion, and it requires to bo honored in a, special

way and it is for the people to do so heartily. By the re-arrangement of the tour whereby Hokitika is to be visited, the stay here will ibe of longer duration than at many other places of greater importance in some respects than this little corner of the Dominion. But no centre ,will possess a greater degree of loyalty or a higher sense of fealty to the Empire to which we are so proud to belong, and for that reason the reception and entertainment will emulate in the right spirit the reception to be accorded the Heir Apparent in any other part of the Dominion. The Premier of Victoria when addressing recently a meeting of Mayors in connection with the Victorian reception, said lie hoped the reception would lie characteristic of the people. We must, he said, make the Prince feel the great heart of -the people is loyal to the Throne of England. He asked the Mayors to organise to that end. To enthuse their people to put some ginger into it, and make the reception go. That is sound advice to be followed everywhere, and we hope the Hokitika preparations will he begun this evening in that fine national spirit which always distinguished their action.

Whither wending is the thought arising in the public mind after reading the Home cable news for the past day or two. Matters are very much awry in the Old Land, and at the moment there is no silver lining to indicate that the black clouds will soon disperse, and a more genial atmosphere envelope the land. Industrial troubles and unrest of serious moment present themselves, and there is a note of belligerency in the tone of the proceedings which mark the negotiations Great statesmen, in this hour of crisis, are at arms’ length, and by turn are attempting to hold each other up to ridicule, or discount the personal worth of each other. Matters in Ireland are drifting from bad to worse, and black murder stalks the land, and despite the array of force in the country cannot be checked. Politics generally arc seething with many signs of discontent, and restlessness, pointing to an early general election, the result of which might he radical. While this is so within the United Kingdom, there is without, in Europe a state of affairs developing which might easily reflect themselves in Great Britain, ' A note of distrust in Britain is being sounded in France, while the French Premier speaks uneasily about the menace to France from the German military forces in Ruhr valley. The whole situation is pregnant with possibilities of transcendent effects. It seems to need only some daring Guy Fawkes to touch the gunpowder, and a serious condition of affairs will prevail. Easter season appears to he a time of uneasiness for Britain of late years, v Four years ago there was the Sinn Fein rising in Dublin; two years ago there were the blackdays of the war; and now England is face to face with a grave social and political disorder. Whither wending, the question recurs.