“REFORM” AND ARBITRATION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8366, 28 February 1913, Page 6

“REFORM” AND ARBITRATION

The Government intends to stand by the Arbitration Act. So thp Hon. W. F. Massey, Prime Minister and Minister of Labour, told a deputation yesterday. This means that the selfstyled Reformers, now in office, are prepared to support and maintain one of the greatest planks of the advanced "Liberalism of the Seddonian days. It means, too, that the Conservatives who for the time being have fallen on to soft places are prepared to forgot or to stultify all their past fierce and unyielding resistance to one of the most heroic experiments of what ha* in days gone by been derided by the same party as reckless Socialism. When the Arbitration Act was first before Parliament it was assailed by the thenj Opposition as unscientific and in evoryj way dangerous, and Mr Seddon was repeatedly .warned that the whole scheme must inevitably prove a colossal failure. Now the Tory Government is determined to stand by the very Act which all the wisdom of Toryism then declared would prove Mr Sed,don’s undoing. This is really quite remarkable. It is strange, too, in view of quite recent declarations by soma of Air Massey’s present colleagues. There is Air Herdman, for instance, who said in the House and on the plat* form that the Arbitration Court had done incalculable harm, and that ever since it had come into existence thefeeling of dissatisfaction had grown* and the feeling of enmity increased.

There is also Mr Fisher, who urged that the Court had outlived its usefulness and should be done away with. We invite the public to note that “lleform’ ’ has, by the authority of its chief exponent, formally adopted this vital portion of the Liberal policy which it had so long and bitterly opposed—that here is a piece of firstclass legislative enterprise, hitherto considered by the Conservatives as Socialistic and economically unsound, concerning which they do not propose to introduce their much-vaunted “reform.” We also offer our congratulations to the Government pn a welcome, though tardy, conversion to reason in respect of at least one plank of Liberalism. It is, of course, to be assumed that Mr Herdman and Mr Fisher have quite recently been converted.