THE ARBITRATION ACT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7865, 29 July 1911, Page 4

THE ARBITRATION ACT

With some of the opinions expressed yesterday by delegates -to the Farmers’ Union Conference regarding the Arbitration Act few people, we should imagine, would be prepared to quarrel. It cannot be doubted, for instance, that experience of this Act has revealed many flaws in its theory . andl design, and that its provisions have lent themselves to abuse. Employers and workers will readily admit this. The frequent amendment of tho Act has proved that the Legislature recognised it. No one ever claimed that the Act was entirely satisfactory. It belongs to that class of legislation which must ever, be in the melting-pot fox the very simple reason that it is a panacea for meeting economic and'social conditions that are subject to continual fluctuation. The question, after all, is whether the policy of trying to secure industrial peace and maintaining a fair standard of living for the wage-earning classes by such intervention as tho Arbitration Court is one to bo wholly rejected os approved mistake or whether wo should go forward endeavouring to perfect the machinery in tho light of altered circumstance and greater experience. There are people who would Light-heartedly wipe tho Act'from tho statute book, who would take us back to the beginning, but we are very much afraid that counsels of this kind, which fail to present any alternative Hue of action, lead nowhere but to anarchy. Trades .unionism is a thing to be reckoned with, however distasteful it may be to some timid souls, and without suggesting for a moment that the Arbitration Act represents the last word of wisdom upon one of the most perplexing problems of the age, it seems to us morally certain that abolition of the measure would bring many employers face to face with something infinitely more disturbing to their peace of mind than they have now to meet. When the claim is made that the Arbitration Act has had a prejudicial effect upon industry it is legitimate to ask whether tho people who put forward that statemerist have also considered its effect upon the trade union spirit. This is a phase of the question which the committee appointed by tho Fanners’ Union might perhaps consider worth some attention, for it is conceivable that finding on that point might have considerably influenced the character of its general report.