THE LABOUR LEGISLATION or NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12570, 3 August 1901, Page 9

THE LABOUR LEGISLATION or NEW ZEALAND.

TO. (By A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE.) It is a truism that everybody can be ■yise aiter the event. The success of the party of 18S0 at the polls in succeeding elections, ensured. a continuous period of development of policy, that falls but rarely to* the promoters of any movement, and gave time to estimate results following the action of the new forces set in motion. Very few people in New Zealand at the time were able fully to appreciate the tireless energy and prescient skill with which the new Minister of Labour, the Hon W. IP. Reeves, cleared the. arena of antiquated statutory law, the accumulated anM often obsolete lumber from a hundred English Parliaments, as the new work on which ho was engaged took form and shape under his ■ hands. New Zealand Ministers for nearly a decade mud striven iu vain, to pass a measure revising apd codifying the criminal law, and ah the same time repealing a chaotic collection of statutes, venerable and hoary from ages past, but sometimes capable of being unexpectedly' called into operation. This work was successfully carried through in 1893, and the repeals included'so many enactments dating from 1550 to 1850 that the position for the future became more definite, and attended with some degree of assurance. ' Itf the next year, 1894, the passing of the Conspiracy Law Amendment Act completed: for the time the work of legislative demolition. ’ By this Act the ancient and admitted that any Act done by a single individual,, which was not unlawful in itself, became unlawful if done hy a number of persons collectively, if their action, was in furtherance of a trade dispute; and thereby rendered them liable to criminal proceeding.?, was extinguished. One reservation was made in the repeal, which recalls to the memory of the trade unionist the decision of the English Justice Brett, in 1872, when he sent to prison for twelve months a number of aggrieved gas stokers, who failing to ge& attention to ; ttiheir complaints, suddenly struck work, and involved a good part of western London in partial darkness. To deprive a whole community of a public service which they bad undertaken to fulfil, was then held to be illegal, and this provision was still retained in the New Zealand Ac:-, of 1894. , r Then followed the most daring step' in modern legislation, for it is impossible to overestimate the important and far-reaching character of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, of 1894. Tho three previous years had been spent) in the most vigorous strife over the first drafts of the Bill, and from tills crucible of criticism, the measure had emerged as from ah evolutionary process for a second Parliament to deal with. The trade unions gave it their almost unanimous support, and their approval had been voiced from a series of : conferences, the representative character of which was established and rapidly increasing.' Frfim the limited number of nine in 1888 the duly registered unions had doubled in two years afterwards, and had more than quadrupled by 1894, so that the final passing of the Act met the wishes of- a comparatively large section of workers who were becoming at the time impatient of delay. The Act contained the principles of mutual agreement and moral ' suasion, .which, 1 when solely relied on, had shipwrecked so many well-intentioned efforts in the labour world previously. But it contained more. The strong hand of legal compulsion was behind it for the first time. It avowedly encouraged the formation of industrial unions of workers on one side, and industrial associations of employers oh the/ other, and called on them to register as fuch under its provisions. Existing c, trade unions might register as industrial Unions without losing their previous status Under the Act of 1878, but must comply .With the conditions imposed on. all who bought the advantages of the later Act. (The strenuous support which they had given to the new departure of 1891 had - caused trade unionism generally to be regarded as a “beta noire” by its opponents, and the xe-registration of the societies under the term “industrial unions” was possibly designed to efface their former designation. In any case, the forty existing unions nearly all registered afresh under the new title. 3j these two organised bodies, workers and employers in any trade or calling, chose to enter into and sign an. agreement regarding wages, conditions, and trade matters generally, for a maximum period of three years, a copy of such agreement was to-be filed in-the Supreme Court, and the signatory parties were to be held bound by. its terms. It might be altered by mutual consent. but heavy penalties might be incurred by those committing breaches of such agreements. In the event of a dispute'between parties, and the absence' of any authoritative agreement, either of them might proceed to refer the case to the Board of Conciliation of the district, of which six were .Constituted, but only five Boards established Sn the colony. These Boards were composed of inembers partly elected by the employers through their associations, and partly by the workers through their unions, with a Chairman outside of .their number, but elected by those , who directly represented both parties. The statements of the two contending parties were to be heard by the Board', which Was entrusted with considerable, power to elicit all material facts, and it could cenjc to a decision bn the merits of the case; arid recommend both parties to adopt it in bn “industrial agreement.” If they declined, to do so (which in practice they frequently either party could take the case to the Court of Arbitration, cr the Board failing to “ conciliate ” might send on the case of its own motion, i The Court consisted of three members, tie appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the labour organisations, another on the recommendation of the employers, and the Chairman a Judge of the Supreme Court. The decision of this Court .was to he final, and embodied no' in a i recommendation,” but in an “industrial toward,” which neither party could evade cr ignore, - * and which had all the force of to judicial decision for the term specified. At the expiration of the time the award might be renewed, altered, or again carried before the Court. Heavy penalties were provided for any infraction of the award, and cases of breach were to pe hoard by the Arbitration Court. All the proceedings were to bo as, far as possible expeditious, cheap, /and destitute of technicalities, and; an important point was that no strike, lockout, •or dismissal was to be tolerated during tho time which followed the initiation of proceedings. Written law in fact was to /supersede the law of the mob, or the intractability of individuals, and parties who refused to register under the Act could be made amenable to its provisions, there was nothing to be gained by maintaining an attitude of sullen abstention. The -awards in practice covered a multitude of Ithie minor matters, which had previously caused- so much trouble,, wages, sex of employees, hours of labour, proportion of apprentices, conditions of work, dismissals »f hands, and preference of unionists for employment, all these in. turn formed questions on which judgments were given. The last mentioned point (preference of unionists for employment) was at first resented, and an injunction obtained in Canterbury from the Supreme Court forbidding preference, bub the case was tested further, and an order granted to set aside the injunction. No counsel or solicitor could appear before • the Board on either side except with the knowledge and expressed consent of both parties, but short of ■ appearing hi Court legal help might be invoked to any extent. The passing of the Act was the signal for the immediate organisation of workers in quite a number of avocations, in which trade unionism previously Lad been quite Unknown. Within four years afterwards 132 “industrial unions” and industrial aseociations had been, formed with a membership of 14,892, a number which at the present time exceeds 19,000. The applications to the Conciliation, Boards were numerous, ®nd in some eases satisfactory adjustments /oil-owed, but the majority of the disputes camei .Court^ 1

which was kept busy, in dealing with so many claimants. Nor did the pressure slacken after the first year or two, newly associated bodies succeeded in turn, and on ,tho expiration of soma of the -short dated awards the Court was again applied to for revision of terms. Although tho proportion of cases settled by the Conciliation Boards in the first case fell short of what had been anticipated, the judicial decisions of the Arbitration Court were largely guided by what had taken place before the inferior bodies, end the ultimate decisions seldom went beyond the terms recommended by them. The general result up to -date has been to benefit the various members of the associated bodies, which have obtained awards, in soma instances materially, but as the operation, of the Act li-as been coincident with -a considerable measure of general prosperity (specially marked in -the building trades) it is not clear what amount of benefit is due to the Act, as differentiated from the advantage due to .the latter factor. In 1896 some trifling amendments were added, and last year with additional touches the whole was welded together into- one compete statute, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1900. By that time it was clear the . Act had come to_ stay, and constituted one of those steps in advance, which, with whatever amount of hesitation they may be undertaken, can never afterwards be retraced.