POLITICS AND REALITIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22401, 23 April 1936, Page 10

POLITICS AND REALITIES

The speech of the, Minister of Labour in proposing the second reading of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill was chiefly remarkable for its failure to come to grips with the' details of an extremely important measure. What should have been a precise, businesslike exposition from the responsible Minister of the Crown reads, as Mr. Hamilton subsequently remarked, more like the oratory of a Labour politician. In spite of the moral earnestness Mr. Armstrong brought to the task, the public will feel that closer attention to facte is necessary in recommending a bill dealing with industrial relationships upon which depend the wages and conditions, the daily bread and way of life, of tens of thousands of workers. Instead of reviewing the bill clause by clause, explaining the effect of this and defending the practicability of that, and showing that the whole was workable, Mr. Armstrong talked at large of production and distribution, of man-made depressions in an age of super-abundance, of needs and purchasing power. As for the bill, he contented himself with references to the basic wage and the 40hour week, the latter provision being the only one he attempted to justify by argument and example. Mr. Hamilton, who followed the Minister, sagely brought the debate back from the heights of aspiration to the workaday plane of common sense.

After correcting the Minister on matters of fact, he went on to criticise "compulsory" arbitration, which compelled the employers but did not bind the workers. He showed, and it cannot be denied, that the general effect of the bill will be to increase costs and therefore the prices the worker and producer must pay. 80 the Labour Government is starting on the old and vicious circle of rising costs and increased prices. The gap between internal costs and export prices, materially reduced under the last Government, will widen, thus seriously embarrassing the farmers. As primary industry suffers, so will the whole national economy, the workers included. Therefore the effect of the bill will be to lessen rather than increase employment, and the same result will follow from the raising of labour costs. A new impetus will be given to the use of machinery and the introduction of labour-saving devices. These were some of the hard realities Mr. Hamilton was forced to oppose to the enthusiastic generalities of the responsible Minister.