A HAPPY ISSUE. The Shipping Companies and Seamen's Conference.

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 402, 14 March 1908, Page 6

A HAPPY ISSUE. The Shipping Companies and Seamen's Conference.

AMID the quakings of the Blackball mining disturbance, and the rumbling echoes of the late trouble at Denniston, it has been highly satisf actoi y to iiear of the happy settlement of the points at issue between the shipping oompainjes and the Seamen's Union. The particular cause for congratulation us in> tie fact that m an anqing their basis for future working such a hue free spirit of give-and-take prevailed omi both sides. A voluntary agreement has thus been made possible which obviates entirely any need of Arbitration Court, Conciliation Board, or any semblance of coercion or compulsion. This is just as matters should be, and it is to be fervently hoped for the sake of the whole Domsnion< that the industrial life of New Zealand will for the future be actuated by the same spirit. The issue of the Conference will have been doiubly gratifyang to the Horn. J. A. MiHair, the Minister for Labour, who was called upomi to act as meditator between the parties concerned. Mr. Millars lot of late has not been of the pleasantest. He must have experienced great coinflict of mind over the West Coast troubles, for he has been, subjected to much bitter treatment at the handis of those whom he has sought most earnestly to benefit. • ♦ * Of course, no public mam,, and perhaps particularly no Minister of the Crown, expects to meet with universal favour, or to be crowned by all classes mi the day of his power. All the weight of tradition and history burls itself against any such expectation. But it has been curious to notice that the Hon. J. A. Millars consistent striving to benefit the worker has often been met by the workers with storms of abuse. If any man ever demonstrated that his heairt andi hand held true to the rants from which he sprang, the Minister fox Labour was that man. But he has not by any means been credited with such motives. • • * In the seaman's dispute, however, he has achieved a triumph after his own heairt, and the subject is one whoc-h gives the whole Dominion cause for congratulation. The importance of the results arrived! at aire apparent when it is noted that about 2000 em ployees of the shipping companies are oomcerned in the increased pay agreed to, and an estimate of the number dependent on the employees gives a total of some 3500 persons as being directly interested in the award. • • - The ltnoreased expenditure by the Union- Steam Ship Company alone as a result of the new agreement, practically all of which will be in wages, will amount to about £8700 a year, and other ship-owners will beatr an increased annual expenditure of £3300. It is stated, that altogether the new coinditK>nis will benefit the employees of the shipping companies to the extent of about £12,000. These results will take effect almost immediately, and the Hon. J. A. Millar considers that the advantages will work out at something like £11 to £12 per man per annum. • • • The most satisfactory phase of the whole matter is, of course, the voluntary nature of the agreement. As Mr. William Scott, secretary of the Otago Employers' Association, said recently : "Agreements made between the parties are always better kept, and are, generally speaking, more workable than awards of the Court. Parties to these agreements are experts; they are thoroughly conversant with technicalities ; they provide for everything ; and tEey understand the meaning of clauses they themselves have drafted." One of the happiest augur-

les for the future of our industrial welfare is in the hope arising from the result of this conference. The hope that both employers and employees have grown weary of strife fund strewn and discord, and that "the more excellent way" of settlement than any legislation can provide hasoommended itself to both parties.