WAREHOUSE EMPLOYEES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12698, 28 October 1904, Page 4

WAREHOUSE EMPLOYEES.

The warehouse employees are not disposed to accept the legislation which the. Government is forcing upon them, without exhausting every constitutional means of protecting themselves against its final enactment. Two delegates were chosen yesterday at a large and representative meeting, who are commissioned to proceed to Wellington in order to, place before members of Parliament the very strong views held by the trade. It is still possible to prevent, by Council amendment, the infliction so unanimously resented, and no difficulty should be experienced . in securing the exemption of the warehouses from the Shops and Offices Bill. Bub what " should be" and what "is" are frequently very far apart in the actions of foe present Administration. One would imagine that when a trade, which works under peculiar conditions, consistently and logically expresses itself adversely to the imposition of cast-iron regulations, even the most ardent champion of State-interferences J would acknowledge its claims. For it is always being insisted upon that such Stateinterferences are designed wholly and solely to improve the position of the employees they affect. But it is very evident that these Bills are drafted and passed through Parliament, not in the interest of persons affected, but as the consequence of a mania for State-inter-ference which is as blind and unreasonable as the morphine or any other bad habit* Jhe professional

reformer insists oh regulating everything and everybody, whether to do so is wise or unwisftj"; called for or repudiated. 11l this particular instance ; the., warehouse employees have id much at stake that they object with a vigour that almost convinced the House. It is something that the House only insisted upon injuring them by the bare majority of one, for we have reached such a pass iii this colony that the average member has to be roused to an unusual pitch of temerity before he ventures to record his vote against the wishes of the Cabinet. The voting in the Council may show that the Government has realised; the foolishness, if not the injustice, of its determination to bring the warehouse employees under conditions very much less favourable to them than those which have been most amicably arranged between. them and the warehouse firms. And if the Council exempts them there is little doubt that they will be able to convert another member or two in the House and thus secure its consent to the amendment. • But the whole proceeding is an outrage upon common sense and should help to open the eyes of the, public to the character of our so-called progressive legislation.