JUDGE BACKHOUSE ON ARBITRATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11716, 26 July 1901, Page 4

JUDGE BACKHOUSE ON ARBITRATION.

The report presented by Judge Backhouse to the New South Wales Assembly will not be unanimously accepted here as an altogether correct representation of the effects produced by our Conciliation and Arbitration Act. Many will take exception to the statement that the law has tended: to a more harmonious feeling among the people gener-

ally, for we have had of late certain rulings and awards which are bit- ' terly resented and the ever-increae. ing volume of business coining before both courts and " boards ; shows that -a deep feeling o f ,. unrest is being excited. As-' Judge Backhouse very shrewdly ' goes on to remark, " the awards'.' generally have been in favour of the ■ workers," and he earlier states that "the effect oi the Act has been ud< doubtediy to make the public paymore for the products of industries which have been regulated by thg Board or Court." This, h= says, happens when tariff or other con. ditions bar foreign competition. What happens when there is no op- I portunity for the employer to com. pensate himself at the expense of; the consumer he does not say, but a decreasing output and an in, creased importation is the obvious '• effect. It should be (noted, how* evei, that the summing-up of his in t ' vestigations is a distinct and inv J j qualified confirmation of the position iterated and reiterated in the New* Zealand Herald. Not until the* lean years come can compulsory arbitration be regarded as tested and proved. He points out, as we have | repeatedly pointed out, that indus- - trial activity has affected wage/: conditions here as everywhere else, and that om prosperity is not dug to our labour laws, but that the seeming triumph or our labour lawjj may easily be temporary and due toT a temporary industrial activity, <■" This opinion can hardly be regarded as an unqualified approval of an Act which he asserts to encourage "harmonious feeling." It rather indi<cates that his judicial mind, how- - ever it may be wrongly impressed by. other people's opinions, is totally dissatisfied with its impressions and insists upon waiting for the unmistakable verdict of time. When world is slack, when values are falling, - when men are idling and employers putting up their shutters, we shall? see whether arbitration is workable) or not. ' That is in reality JudgeBackhouse's decision. ri Jpi