OUR LABOUR LEGISLATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12590, 27 August 1901, Page 4

OUR LABOUR LEGISLATION.

We lave been learning something more of tie opinions of Mr W. L. Millar, the representative of an English, corporation ■who thought the Argentine a better industrial field than Australasia. Some of the Conservative journals have published in full the comments he made in Sydney on our labour legislation, with the idea, presumably, that they constitute a crushing charge against the Liberal policy. The truth is that Mr Millar never attempted to make out a case against , labour legislation'. “ There is no Government in any other country under the sun that I have heard of except your own,” he told a Sydney interviewer, “that has attempted to establish a minimum wage, or interfere so much between employers and employees.. It is a great mistake, in my opinion.” He did not say how or why it was a mistake or what part of it was a mistake, and if he had been asked whether women ought to be used as beasts of burden in a coal mine he would probably have said, in the same tone, “It is a mistake, in my opinion.” nut Mr Millar went on to say that the butchers of London were beginning to prefer Argentine mutton to New Zealand mutton, leaving the interviewer to infer that our labour legislation Was spoiling the breed of New Zealand sheep and injuring the quality of the meat. The Argentine, of course; has learned a good deal from New Zealand during the past few years. Many of its stations are managed by New Zealandera who learnt their business in this country, and it will continue to progress as it adopts more and more of our methods. The lesson we have to learn is -that we must go on improving our systems, shorten the voyage to the Home market, and increase the facilities for' the reception and distribution of our products at the other end. Probably if the Argentine factories were operated by such intelligent workers as are produced under our social and legislative institutions, they would become even more formidable rivals of our own, and it is quite within the bounds of possibility that the industry in which Mr Millar is interested would be better conducted, if not absolutely more profitable to the capitalists, in New Zealand than in South America* The Australasian colonies have not yet reached perfection in their commercial and industrial methods, apd while the Argentine progresses it is possible for us to maintain our lead by determined and intelligent effort. That is the only practical lesson to bo obtained from Mr Millar’s observations.