WORK AND WAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13782, 22 June 1908, Page 6

WORK AND WAGES.

CONDITIONS IN NEW ZEALAND REPORT OF MR. E. AYES. [FROM ovji own CORIIESrON'DENT.] Loxdox, May 15. Last week I mentioned briefly that Mr. Ernest Aveswho , had been appointed by the Secretary of State for Home Affairs to make an investigation into the operation of the various laws affecting wages and conditions in Australia and New Zealand—had been giving evidence before st Select Committee of the House of Commons in respect to this tour. The witness had drawn up a voluminous report, embodying the results of his inquiries, which has not vet been published, but of which the committee had been furnished with advance copies. Mr. Aves has; continued his account oi the powers and operations of the wages and arbitration boards in New Zealand and Australia. His general view was that the system had so far worked very well, but it was recognised in the colonies themselves, that the testing time was not yet, the period during -which the system had been in force being coincident with a time of abounding prosperity, and accordingly the decisions of the wages board, being on an ascending scale, had been generally accepted. Roughly speaking, he would put more faith in an appeal to men's better feelings than in any attempts to coerce them into raying a legal fixed wage. The legal superstructure that would have to follow in this country from the establishment of wages boards seemed so formidable that ho was driven back to the view- that it was not possible here to fix a legal rate. Asked if, from what ho had seen in New Zealand and Australia, he would recommend the setting up of wages boards as a remedy for sweating, Mr. Aves expressed the fear that wages boards, with power to fix legal rates of wages, would break down in this country. At the same time, he thought that wages boards, formed and officially recognised, with power to promulgate and" disseminata recommendations, and also with certain other powers exercised by the Department, might be really advantageous in certain trades. Further than that he was not prepared to go. This week Sir Charles Dilke gave evidence before the Sejecfc Committee; he was geneially in favour of the Bill under consideration. He did not place reliance on local authorities, because in places where supervision was most needed "they failed. With regard to wages boards, Sir Charles was ill favour of the experiment in large trades, such as the clothing and tailoring. By making the experiment in smaller sweated trades little benefit, ho considered, would accrue.