SEEKING A SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17457, 29 April 1920, Page 5

SEEKING A SETTLEMENT.

PREMIER GOING SOUTH. MOTORING TO WELLINGTON. i FIRST MOVE FROM MINISTER. MEN READY TO NEGOTIATE. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON. Wednesday. The» Prime Minister advises that he is on his way to Wellington by motor-car from Rotorua. Until Mr. Massey arrives here it is unlikely that any move will be made towards a settlement of the strike. The first move will probably come from the Minister, probably after his arrival in Wellington, although he might take some action by telegraph from Napier. The most general suggestion is that the Minister should offer to both the locomotive men and the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants a tribunal under the Labour Disputes Investigation Act. There has been some little delay .about the reply of the Minister to the application of the Amalgamated Socjfty of- Railway Servants to come under this Act and it is possible that there is some legal difficulty about making this Act applicable to railwav men. • Until last session the wages of railwaymen could not be altered except by Parliament, the -wages being fixed by a. schedule of the Railways Act. During the war the Government got over this 'by granting bonuses to the men, but ihe'uuestions new raised are not requests for bonuses but for permanent additions to salaries. The Act of last session amended the former law to some extent but the fixing of scales of wages is still left to be determined. By the Act of last year a new schedule, adding the "war bonuses to permanent salaries wa3 enacted and provision was made for the making of regulations under which a Railway Employment Board could be set up. These regulations were made and the board set up with the results now generally known. It may be that befoie any action under this Labour Disputes Act is possible more regulations will be needed This is a matter which could be quickly remedied, but it is one demanding the personal attention of the Prime Minister and the Executive Council. It ,s quite freely stated by men who ought to know something of the strike and the strikers, that if the Minister could give a definite promise of action on these lines, with the provision that the strike be declared off with the right to the men to resume it if no settlement were reached, the men would be prepared to go back to work. The heads of the societies have no idea that they will b* able to hold out until the Government capitulates and gives them out of hand all that they ask. They realise that the strike will have to be settled by negotiation and they are not blind to the fact that it can be settled by negotiation just as effectively and perhaps much easier if the men are at work than if they are on strike.