CONDITIONS OF JUVENILE LABOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11446, 8 December 1897, Page 4

CONDITIONS OF JUVENILE LABOUR.

A test naive objection to tbe Master and Apprentice Bill made by a Conservative member during Mon* day’s sitting of tbe House of Representatives was that the measure aimed at regulating boy labour, and, therefore, was misnamed. Now, it is just because it seeks to regulate juvenile labour that the Conservatives are bitterly opposed to this Bill; but it surely betrays mental obtuseness to contend that a measure dealing with apprenticing ought to do nothing to determine the conditions upon which apprentices should be employed, A correspondent, whose letter we print in this issue, wrongly assumes that we expressed approval of the alterations made in the measure by the Labour Bills Committee. While admitting that the proposed changes would meet some of the objections urged to tbe Bill, we clearly showed that they did not remove our own misgivings as to the wisdom of the compulsory indenture system. The objection as to the futility of the suggested reference to the Conciliation and Arbitration tribunals of tbe question of the proportion of apprentices to journeymen also struck us; but not having a copy of tbe Bill as it came from tbe committee, we cannot say whether provision is made for the case of unorganised trades. We presume that such is the case, and the fact that no member appears to have pointed out a flaw in this respect in tbe course of tbe debate in the House, goes to support Ibis presumption. It would, on the face of it, be useless to make any new provision for reference to these tribunals, unless it covered unorganised labour, as under the existing law all labour unions have free access to the Arbitration Court with every dispute, including those about apprentices. We hope to find it provided that, on tbe motion of any employer, or a certain proportion of In's employes, the Conciliation and Arbitration tribunals may be called upon to exercise their powers, the same as though a labour union were concerned. There is tiie difficulty of monetary guarantee to abide by »he finding of the Court, in the case

of unorganised workers; but the working of the Conciliation and ArbiJ tration Act so far has shown that! penalties for non-compliance with decisions in labour disputes are never likely to require enforcing, and might in practice he omitted from the calculation. The Master and Apprentice! Bill will certainly not give satisfaction' unless it makes provision for the regulation of juvenile labour in, unorganised trades and callings, .and we trust that before it is passed the House will see that it is made eflbctivQ in this respect.