TWO POINTS OF POLICY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7848, 10 July 1911, Page 6

TWO POINTS OF POLICY

slt Massey was good enough the other evening to spare a few minutes in whioh to answer some of the questions addressed to him lately by this paper. We conceived it to bo a matter of importance that tho leader of a party which showed vehement opposition to the Advances to Settlers Act and the man who had himself denounced the stop as “ pawnbroking,” at which “we should draw the line,” should take the public into his confidence regarding his present attitude towards tho measure. This seemed to be desirable, since one of tho Opposition candidates in Wellington has lately been referring to "cheap money” as ono of the causes of what ho terms “an undesirable state of affairs.” We had also been moved to ask that Mr Massey should state his attitude towards the Arbitration Act, of which the repeal, out of hand, has been urged by some of the rank and file of bis parly, while others have been expressing the anxiety of the Opposition to pay ‘‘ tho highest wages possible ” and faithfully administer the Act under notice. To both questions Mr Massey returned answers of which it may bo said; (1) That they were satisfactory so far as they indicated recognition of tho force of public opinion; and (2) that his answers were those of ono seeking for words j which would leave almost complete j freedom for future action. He told us, for instance, that he would not touch the Advances to Settlers Act but wished to have tho funds of the Post Office Savings Bank used by the department; 1 that he recognised the necessity of labour laws but desired to have Wages Boards substituted for the Arbitration Court, in order that firstclass men might get the reward of their capacity and second-class men no more than they were. entitled to. Wo will suggest to Mr Massey that his references to tho funds of the Post Office, combined with hostile criticism later in his speech "of tho Government’s policy of dominating all lending transactions,” affords sufficient reason; for suspecting his candour. The funds of the Post Office can only be utilised j in certain directions, and are so utilised now under conditions which keep i them readily available. Whether they; should be invested on mortgage in th© way Mr Massey suggests is a matter for the decision of experts upon such a point. Wo certainly know that mortgages are not a form of liquid security at the time when liquidity is most desired, and that realisation of this fact has brought many financial institutions either to the brink of ruin or to utter smash. In any case it represents a step in administration upon which a public meeting cannot possibly be well enough informed to consider in its relation to existing practice. Moreover, since Mr Massey was dumb about where the money should comej from for the purposes to whioh the. Post Office funds are now applied, we i are inclined to think that ho was more j concerned with raising an issue of confusion and introducing side-winds to! giving a straight-out answer that he favoured continuation of tho policy represented by tho Advances to Settlors Department. So far as the Arbitration Court is concerned Mr Massey’s desire to sea first-class and second-! class men paid according to their | deserts; to have “ the highest,possible” | wages paid; to '‘assist industry” and “ lessen fraction'' between employer and workmen, oome oddly from the leader of a party whose members arei continually trumpeting their oondem-j nation of Labour’s attitude towards in- j dustry and commerce. This is not thej moment for defending the arbitration system as wo know it to-day, but it is the Emo for those workers to whom tho Arbitration Act has been a very real protection to be on the alert against having it dismembered by enemies. No one supposes that the present system represents the last word of wisdom, or that it will endure for ever, but the reasons Mr Massey puts forward as justification for destruction are childish. When he tells us that Wages Boards would be preferable we are reminded that in Victoria, where these exist, there have been many strikes within the last year or two, and that even there an Arbitration Court exercises important jurisdiction- And when he speaks of “ first-class ” and " second-class ” workmen the answer is that there is nothing now to prevent employers paying firstelass men the “ highest possible wages.” In a few industries this question of equalisation is one of some perplexity, and the way out is hard to find, but Mr Massey’s notion that all difficulties will molt away before a system of Wages Boards is given no measure of encouragement by experience.