LABOUR LEGISLATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12570, 3 August 1901, Page 8

LABOUR LEGISLATION.

A DUNEDIN VIEW. [Per Press Association.] DUNEDIN, August 2. The President, Mr Theomin, in his address' to the annual meeting of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, referring to the Labour legislation now before Parliament, said.-—“ lb is very questionable if public opinion is not more efficient and lastingly curative than legislation, which may possibly create far greater and mere intolerable evils than the abuses intended to be overcome. The other measures will bo gleefully welcomed by the Socialistic reformer, but thoughtful men will ask, ‘ Can legislation override the laws of supply and demand, and make fruitful the barren places of the earth?’ Concerning conciliation and arbitration, I regret being ’ forced, to the ponduaion that the colony will eventually suffer, not from the Bill itself, but from its unwise use and the almost incessant interference with working : hours and wages. There is-a great similarity between the condition of affairs under the Act and the rules of Donnybrook Fair. An injured pate can be plastered up, but ill-feeling and distrust engendered in the minds of men are not co easily overcome. Antagonism, once started, is difficult to check.”