Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1891.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 212, 7 September 1891, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1891.

An open air meeting h»B been held in Wei. lington to protest against the action of the Legislative Oounoil with regard to the labour bills, and more particularly against its rejection of Sir George Grey's Friendly Societies Bill. Two members of Parliament, Messrs Kelly and Hogg, addressed the meeting, at which about a thousand people were present. It does not appear that the bulk of the people in Wellington are troubling their heads much about the labour bills or the Legislative Council. Nothing is easier than to gathor a crowd of a thousand people there. A well advertised Punch and Judy show will do it easily. It is even surprising that when it was announced that two members of Parliament were to speak in the open air the crowd was not much greater. ' About the bill which was the particular subject of discussion most of those who supported it do noc care to talk much. The members of the House of Representatives who

vofeed for it made one of those oheap bids ' for temporary popularity whioh are very common ia these days, with the certainty that they would gain this advantage without doing much mischief. The bill was specially ; directed against a friendly society which had been organised by the Union Steam Ship Company. It waa to be confined entirely to the servants of the Company, and the Company, which was to contribute to tho funds, waa to have a share in the management. The proposal to sliarfc the society gave Jejreat offence to the leaders of Trades Unions, who saw that it would prove a strong obstacle to strikes, and they enlisted Sir George Grey in their cause. His bill proposed to enact that any benefit society formed among the servants of any person, firm, or corporate body should be registered under one of the Acts in force in tho colony, and that the sole management should be in the hands of those who were to derive benefit. The employers were to be forbidden to have any share in the management. Any person, whether employer or employed, who should form or carry on any association in contravention of the statute was to be liable to imprisonment with hard labour and a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds. It; was also provided that in any benefit society formed among the staff of any one concern no member should lose his rights by leaving the employment. There was a time when it was thought a meritorious act on the part of any employer to do anything which might tend to promote the common interest of him^ self and those in his service. But all that is changed now. It is considered necessary that all wage earners should bo constantly prepared for war. Armed neutrality is the nearest approach to a friendly relation that can exist between them and their employers. It is necessary above all things that not the slightest impediment should be allowed to be placed in the way in case a strike should be ordered at a moment's notice. Tho supporters of tho measure, however, after it had passed through the House of Representatives, discovered that iti went considerably further than even they intended. There have been established for many years insurance and pension funds in banks and other large companies, which would bring them under the penalties of the bill. • If Sir George had had his way some highly respectable citizens of Nelson would have had fco break up arrangements by virtue of which they believed thafi provision had beon made for old age, under the penalty of being liable to imprisonment with hard labour and a heavy fine. The recklessness which led the majority of the House of Representatives to pass a Bill which would have such an effect is certainly deplorable.