LABOUR LAWS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9717, 20 July 1917, Page 6

LABOUR LAWS

PRAISED BY A JUDGE BRIGHTENED LIVES OF MANY PEOPLE. Air Justice Higgins, in an address to the Sydney Millions Club, said that he was not so presumptive as to think that ho had discovered a nostrum for ail industrial troubles, but as bo had been President of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court for nearly ten years it would have been curious if in that time be had not beard .something about the relations of capital and labour. It was not usual for a judge to discuss his work out of court, but his work was very exceptional. Because of tho exceptional circumstances ho felt justified in coming out of his judicial isolation. There was one way of producing harmony between capital and labour, and that was by giving one class the absolute domination of the other. But that was not the kind of harmony they wanted. What they required was not war, but peace based on reason and justice, not the rule ot might, but the rule of right. The systems of Wages Boards aud Arbitration Courts which have been established in Australia and Now Zealand wore new to the world, and had attracted attention m Europe and America. These systems had not come out of the head of Zeus complete and flawless as had Athena. If men said that their systems had not wholly stopped labour troubles, they said very truly; but what law had over wholly prevented tho offence which it said it would prohibit? He would say with full knowledge that the Australian laws -bad prevented many serious strikes which would otltcfuripc have oodurred —especially in tho trying times of increased cost of living since the war. Unfortunately the public did not know of the strikes that had been averted. The Labour laws had brightened the lives of many people in humble walks of life, and had prevented the underfeeding of many children. As far as his own court was concerned, there and never yet been a single conviction, »r oven until the last few days a prosecution, for a strike in a dispute within tho court’s jurisdiction. Duly once had permission been asked to prosecute. It was also a fact.that there bad never been a conviction of any employee for disobeying an award. But It was only fair to add that the fact vas not so remarkable as it seemed, inasmuch as tho disputes nearly always rested on the claims by employees to'restrain employers. It was. tare for employers to ask the assistance of tho court; they preferred to rest on the superiority of their position in making a bargain. \