LABOUR LEGISLATION IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXX, Issue 3883, 28 October 1899, Page 5

LABOUR LEGISLATION IN ENGLAND.

lb v \h interesting to Icarii that in .the Ajkitlier Country,- a-a .here, tho labour 'legislation, pessimists predicted 1 would prove unworkable or vexatious, is yielding.good.results. Tno satisfactory, working of tho system of voluntary: conciliation in labour disputes, to which refere/pm was .made in. our columns, on Thursday, is paviagTlio'way for thc'ac-: coptauco of the imnciplo of compulsory industrial arbitration. Another British labour law, wd now note, is being loyally necopted by employers as well as'employed.;. ,'Tu a Blue Book just issued by, the Chief.. Registrar . of Friendly ■ Societies, for the-year 1898, particular?. iiro iuteluded for the first time of the work done by tho registrars Under the Workmen's Compensation .Act. In his reference to the procedure Under tho cou-traetiug-oub- .section of the Act the Chief' Registrar says “that the result of tho first six .mouths’ working of the con-tracting-out section, bars been to show on tho part of the, employers who have applied fur certificates, to ,schemes, a de•inro to meet their workmen in ,tlio moat handsome 'manner, and on the part of tho workmen an excellent'feeling of fairness arid goodwill. This is marked by. the eiroumstaii-eo that in sumo eases where*. employers amL.w orkiueu; had unaniuu*isly contented to conditions which thoiregistrar,.didnofc' thinkrjus tilled. Jiini in, granting Tho ’ee.rt-ifieato under the Act, the employers have at once adopted 1 he, .modifications, suggested to 'thorn.” Tho. report gives- parlicftlarw of some fit by schemes whieii have been certified:, many of those schemes requiring from £jd pipyweck peivvprkiuanj iimlgfroWThhil: workmen y&Opor week cachf and in, Jill ~cases they pro- 1 vide compensation exceeding that of the Act, and other benefits. It has been ascertained in'the Homo Office that the schemes .hitherto certified affect 89,200 workpeople, employed as follows:-

On J railways, 3-1,933 in factories* 17,862 ; Tn urines, 35,969 ; iu quarries,' 436. lb may bo found that, by allowing employers and workmen to co-opcrate voluntHrily in this way," under'State supervision*:: good , feeling' will bo more fully promoted ..than/would have ■ been the ciiso if joint schemes had been altogether; forbidden.',. .