MORE EQUITY WANTED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7930, 13 October 1911, Page 1

MORE EQUITY WANTED

“TOO MUCH LAW.” EEGISTEATION BEING CANCELLED BY UNIONS. SPECIAL TO THE “ TIMES.” AUCKLAND, October 12. Tho epidemic of union revolt against tho administration of tho Arbitration Act is spreading rapidly throughout tho Dominion (says tho “Star’s” labour correspondent). The first unions to secede from the Act were the miners, then followed the shearers, Auckland tramwaymen, and Auckland general labourers. Tills' week the Auckland waterside workers are to consider tho matter at a special meeting, while tho question of cancellation of registration is likely to comb up for consideration at a meeting of the Auckland Painters’ Union. Tho members of tho Auckland Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ Union arc seething with discontent at tho refusal of the court last week to grant an award to include the private hotels of the district- Evidence of as much as 85 to 195 hours per week was adduced by tho union, and yet tho court turned a deaf oar to the prayer of tho union. The reason given is rather a peculiar one, and shows that the court and tho Labour Department are very much at variance in their interpretation of the existing law. The department maintains that tho amended Act of last session does not include the employees in private hotels in relation to hours of labour, while Air Justice Sim stoutly asserts that such workers are already protected by the Act, and so refuses to grant an award. Tho two sets of luminaries are pulling in different directions, and the union in between suffers. It is- no wonder that union after union is breaking away from the Act, and tho Hon. J. A. Alillar himself has had reluctantly to throw a brick at the constitution of the court by stating that he considers that the time has arrived for the displacement of a legally-trained president by a practical, commercially-train-ed person in that important position. Afore equity is wanted and loss law, and tho sooner such a change is effected tho better it will bo for the industrial peace of the Dominion.