Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 1927. INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 29, 3 January 1927, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 1927. INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

It was well said that “A prophet is not without honour save in his own country.” The proposal for a iiye years' industrial truce by mutual agreement between employers and wage-earners made by the Hon. T. Shailer Weston, M.L.C., President of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, some months ago, was coldly received, even licticulecL by those who aspire to lead Labour in this Dominion, and it does not appear to have been regarded with any great amount of sympathy in employing circles. Certain of our contemporaries spoke of it appreciatively and tne “Standard” recognising the benefits that would accrue from the stabilisation of wages and conditions of employment, both to wage-earners and their employers, commended the proposal to its readers. There was, and is, much to be said in its favour, and we notice that it has received the approval of Mr Havelock Wilson (secretary of the British Seamen’s Union) and has been warmly advocated by Messrs Gainmell, Laird and Company in connection with shipbuilding on the Clyde. A Victorian paper (Liberty and Progress) lias also taken the matter up and in a careful analysis of Mr Weston’s proposal points out that not only the contracting parties (the employers and tlie workers) would gain enormously by its adoption, but that the whole community would benefit. With the return of the gold standard most economists agreed that an era of diminished prices had been entered upon. Mr Weston had pointed out that the diminished prices could only be met by (1) a cut in wages, (2) an increase in the Customs tariff, or (3) by improvement in plant, organisation and distribution. An industrial truce would nullify the first method; there was very little to be gained by the second, and employers, therefore, would be compelled to adopt the third method, and rely upon their own ingenuity and resource in improving their plants and subsequent operations to cope with the fall in prices. The employer’s would, therefore, be at additional expense, but, on the other hand, they would benefit by the more stable conditions and would be freed from all anxiety in respect to possible industrial disturbances. Wages are unquestionably higher than they were in 1914, and the conditions under which the workers are employed to-day are also better. Wages are shown by the Government Statistician to be 58' per cent, higher, on the average of all trades and industrial groups, than they were in the pre-war era, and, with the almost continuous fall in prices as shown by the cost of living figures, the workers would gain materially by the stabilisation of wages on the present basis. As the cost of liv-

ing falls, the purchasing power of the worker with his present wages necessarily increases. But a five years’ truce would mean that secretaries and other officials of the several Labour Unions would find their occupations gone; they would have nothing to agitate about and nothing to justify their continued existence. Therein, we take it, is found the true reason why Mi‘ Weston’s proposal is regarded with such disfavour by Union officials that they will not even afford their members the opportunity of discussing it. In the opinion of the head of the Clyde shipbuilding firm already mentioned, the adoption of such a truce as that suggested by Mr Weston would ensure continuity of, employment, free from trouble and strikes, and that would be one of the strongest factors enabling British shipbuilding firms to compete successfully against their Continental rivals.

ITS EFFECT IN NEW ZEA-

LAND

Industrial peace should he the aim of all who Lave the interests of the community at heart. We have fewer strikes or industrial disputes in New Zealand than our friends have in Australia, but we have sufficient experience of them to know that they are costly, alike to the workers participating in them, to their employers and to the general public. They dislocate business, increase unemployment and add to the burdens of the community. What a great thing it would be if we could confidently say that, for the next five years at least, strikes and industrial troubles would cease to exist. New Zealand was once spoken of as a land without strikes. In the earlier days of our arbitration laws, trade “disputes” were settled by the Arbitration Court, and the strike weapon was abandoned. Speaking with all candour, it seems to us that wages have reached that pitch that, unless the labour product is increased correspondingly, it is next to impossible for any industry to meet further demands from the Labour unions. Piece work—payment by results that is —has been practically ruled out of Court by most unions, but it is well recognised that, where it does obtain, the piece-worker earns better money and that he works with a keener spirit than the man who receives a weekly wage. The policy of the Labour unions in this country is in marked contrast with the American policy, and therein is found one of the secrets of the extraordinary prosperity of the American workers —a prosperity that enables them to run t their own motor cars, and that ensures their receipt of high wages and enables them to live in ease and comfort. We have no wish to see New Zealand Americanised, but we do think that New Zealand workers might well take a leaf out of the American book, and profit by the lesson therein contained that restricted output gets the worker nowhere, and that a man’s earning capacity is not to be determined by the minimum output of the inferior worker, in whose interest (allegedly) the minimum hourly or weekly wage is fixed, but by the value of his own unrestricted output, paid for on an equivalent scale to the work accomplished. That, however, is rather beside the mark on the present occasion. It is more desirable that we should stress the importance of a better understanding being come to between the employers and the wage-earners. The former have been so badly hit that,, in many cases (in the building trade for instance), firm contracts can no longer be entered into, and not a few employers undertake to carry out work only on a commission basis, because, as they say, they never know, if they accept a contract, that the workers will not play up with them before the job is finished. In Australia the position is even worse than it is here, and, in the biggest contract now being carried out in New South Wales—the construction of the high level bridge over the harbour connecting the city of Sydney with the North Shore —the contractors took care to indemnify themselves against strikes and increased wage demands on the part of their workers by making the Government responsible for the increased cost. They showed their wisdom in doing so for, before the contract had fairly started, their employees struck work and demanded higher rates of pay, which were conceded at the Go\eminent’s cost. If we can avoid that sort of thing here —and it could be avoided were the industrial truce adopted—we can reasonably anticipate five years of continuous prosperity.

The shopping year of 1926 in Auckland was marked generally by an increased number of customers, but a considerable falling-off in spending money compared with 1926. A disastrous fire occurred in the Strand Tea Rooms in the Octagon at Dunedin at two o’clock yesterday morning. The fire obtained a strong hold before it was extinguished and very great damage was done. The flames spread to the premises occupied by Misses A. and G. Gallagher, a clothing shop, where considerable damage was done to the stock; to Patterson’s, outfitters; Hamer’s, fruiterers, the American Candy Co. and Gourlay’s, pork shop. Water contributed largely to the damage*

Westport on Saturday evening concluded a great week of celebrations on the occasion of its Diamond Jubilee. The Buffer County will celebrate its jubilee next Tuesday. Percy Warbrick, aged forty, a married man, residing in Auckland, sustained a fractured Skull through diving on to submerged rocks at Ilangitoto Island on Saturday. He died in the Auckland Hospital yesterday afternoon.

The year l just closed was the driest on record in Napier for 50 years. The total rainfall negistered was 20.89 inches. The previous driest year was 1921, when the fall was 20.94 inches. The average for the past ten years was 32.61 inches.

As is customary on race days, there was a great volume of traffic through the Manawatu Gorgo on Saturday. A party from Palmerston North, in motoring through to Dannevirke in the forenoon, passed 88 cars between the entrance to the Gorge and the Woodville railway crossing.

The infant son of Mr and Mrs C. W. Stewart, of Wellington, died at sea during the voyage of the Aorangi from Vancouver to Auckland. The parents were returning from a trip abroad with the baby, aged 13 months, and an older child. The body was buried at sea on Christmas Eve halfway between Honolulu and Suva, the last rites being performed by a passenger, Mr R. W. W. Alexander.

The Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon. R. P. Bollard) leaves to-day for Rotorua to preside at the inaugural meeting of the recently constituted Maori Arts and Crafts Board. The gathering promises to be fully representative. While in Rotorua the Minister will confer with the Native chiefs regarding the arrangements for the welcomo to the Duke and Duchess of York.

A young unmarried man named Roy Anderson was picked up on the street at the corner of Princess street and Anderson’s Bay. road, Dunedin, at 1-10 a.m. on New Year’s morning in an unconscious condition. He was taken to the hospital, where it was found that he was suffering from terrible injuries to the head, which would suggest that he had either been knocked down or thrown out of a motor-car. The injured man is in a dangerous condition. The camping sites in and around New Plymouth have proved far more popular even than the Borough Council authorities expected, says the Taranaki News. On Wednesday night every possible parking jfface for cars was found to have been taken up. Several tourists have been unable to find a suitable place for their cars, and the camp site officer (Mr R. Day) intends to take steps to, have a further area of ground cleared at Moturoa.

While taking a very sharp bend on the Vogeltown road, Wellington, on Friday night, a motor-car suddenly left the road and shot over a 30ft. bank, turning over three times as it went down. Although the driver of the vehicle escaped injury, three others were hurt and had to be removed to tlie hospital. William Wardlock sustained injuries to a hip; his six-year-old daughter suffered shock, and Ruth Wardlock, an IS-months-old baby, received a fractured leg.

Christchurch had a Christmas “tragedy” all on its own According to a correspondent, a man and his wife sat down to their Christmas dinner at their home, the father, as usual, wielding the carving knife. An argument started between the two. It culminated in the woman reoeiving a puncture in one shoulder, with a sharp carving knife. That was the signal for alarming the neighbourhood. The woman telephoned the doctor, and police investigations led to the conclusion that the wound Was inflicted accidentally. An unusual sight in these modern days of quick communication by flying locomotives and speeding automobiles was lately to be seen in Waipukurau. Plying for hire from the town to the racecourso was an open drag of the approved pattern of a decade ago, drawn by three sturdy equines, schooled in the art of the perfect trot that delights the lover of horse flesh. Amidst a stream of palatial cars making to the ground the wagonette made a peculiar and unusual blending of the present and the past, i “Of all the places we have visited on our world tour I liked Hong Kong and New Zealand the best,” stated Mr F. W. Kellogg, who arrived in Wellington by the Carinthia on Friday. “The British Government, are to be congratulated on the way that they govern Hong Kong. While there I took pains to go through the native portion of the city in company with a Chinese merchant, who had lived for some time in San Francisco and we found a very positive opinion that to be under British rule was the ideal condition.”

Camels wore imported into South Australia from Afghanistan about 1850. Since then, by breeding and further imports, their numbers have been increased to over 11,000. It is interesting to note that the Austra-lian-bred camels are superior to the imported ones. Government camel stations have been established; private pastoralists have studs of their own. In the first instance, Afghan camel men were brought as well, but nowadays the white settlers are replacing them. In the remoter parts, where conditions are most primitive, one may see a string of them, tied nose to tail, wandering through the bush like some giant serpent. Their Afghan camel man, riding at the head, is striking in liis Eastern garb beside the soberly clad Australian stockman. An unusual incident occurred in the bowling tourney now in progress at Auckland. It was at St. Helier’s, with the game at a critical stage, an Auckland team leading Remuera by one point on the nineteenth head, Auckland’s lead drew a “toucher.” Remuera’s No. 2 “rested” it. As “kitty” lay with two rival bowls, each only inches away, seeking her favour, it appeared to the contestants who craned their necks for the usual close examination that Auckland would, on an official measure, gain the verdict. But, as they stooped over, Auckland’s No. 3 dropped his pipe. It fell on the Remuera bowl and deflected it the merest fraotion, and gave that 6ide the shot. In future (says the Auckland Star) this player is to bo asked to leave his pipe at home when he attends a bowling tournament, so that momentous issues may not be diverted by trivial mischances.