A DOUBTFUL BOON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13859, 23 March 1907, Page 13

A DOUBTFUL BOON.

LABOUR LEGISLATION IN NEW ; ZEALAND. VIEWS OF MR RAMSAY MACDONALD. (FBOU OUR Ow« COEEIBPOKDEKT.) / \ LONDON, February 8. A lbng articlc on- industrial arbitration in New Zealand, headed "A Doubtful Boon," is contributed by Mr Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., to a.'London morning paper, in the courae of which tho writer says: "How many winged hours havo I spent with those little puzzles railed 'Pigs in Clover.' For half a generation tlic tiovernment of New Zealand has been trying to get the little pigs of labour grievances safely boxed, but thcro they ate.. to this day running freely about, knocking each other in and knocking e,ioh other out in a most irritating way. Tho artful tilt that was to settle so many of them was the Arbitration Act. Tho original promoters of the act hoped that it would inako trade unionism universal, strikes impossible, and friendly conciliation between masters and men goneral. Truly, strikes havo become almost impossible because the union which indulges in them is outside tho palo of the law. Tin's is an enormous gain. Industry has been settled, the price of labour has been steadied, and the country saved from much loss. That stands to tho credit of tho arbitration law, and that is a great deal.

"But tho act whioh was to establish conciliation Las. in reality defeated it. The idea was that by the creation of Conciliation Hoards, wl|ich wore lo bo industrial, and not legal in their character, employers and employed would come together and sol tlo griovancos by agreement, and the Arbitration Court, witJi its legal president and legal procedure, which stood behind these* Conciliation Boards, was 1o be only a kind of last resort to lie rarely brought into play.. As a matter of fact, practically everything which the board dees is taken by one side ot other (mostly by the employers) up lo the court, and what was to have been the joyful peace of friendly agreement' ha;; become the grumbling submission to legal authority. "Again, the object of tho promoters of the act was to enconrajse the formation off unions, so that: both labour and capital might be efficiently organised, and conference decisions might thus be accepted by Imth'sidns. Jn ligurcs. their purpose Gas bcpii fulfilled. Hut. glowing print (locs not tell that the act which increased' the membership of the unions completely changed their 'It has made us big, hut it lias taken the stool opt qf us.' was tho remark made to me by one of the Labour loaders in the Parliament at Wellington. A combination of working men for industrial purposes, whether in Now Zealand or at Home, is called a trade union, but the moon is no more green cheeso than is the Kuglish union a New Zealand one. Here a union exists to take advantage of the Arbitration law. It is merely all organisation which keeps officials who may from lime to lime get Mr Justice Chapman to ?ay whether hours should he shortened or wage:-, increased. This is not necessarily a calamity. When the more idyllic dream's of conciliation faded, and New Zealand found hcivejf on the harder and more formal tealilies of legal decisions, the workmen got more and more into the mental rut of considering the courts as being in the main instruments for taising wages. 'Why,'

"they argued, 1 should' wo not bo able to tiring .evidence that we aro not receiving il'Jiiir share of tho produce of our labour, and why should not tlio- courts'award 119 Unit -'fair shano?' Well, wages have' been raised—a. little—not more trnui about per cent, iu a. dozen years on the average, though the increase in somo trades has been, higher. But, behold, there has been soniet uib; magical about those added pounds and '■shillings 'l'heir value lias nofc been 20s and 12d apparently, ljut something less. For tho. ••meeting of tlie-cinployers' executives which accepted' -tie awards of tho courts proeee<!ect ■with a f<rju to transact other business, They resolved iipon an increase of prices, and with their left hands took away the advantages which the Arbitration Courts comuelled their riirht to otfer t-o the workers, ■thus-an award giving increased pay to the Imtchers of Wellington, costing £2000, was followed by a penny increase in the price of meat* alt over the- colony, which represented an extra profit'of £30,000 A miners'' award in tho neighbourhood of Dunedin, which cwt about 6d per ton of ooals,.was followed by an increase of a chilling per ton to the middhvnan- and two shillings to 'tho consumers. My notebook contains- ntauy similar instances. Nor. was this the Only way in which the prosperous wage-earner with Ins increase of wages was fleeced, Tholandlord, too, was lying- in wait for him, and rents nave gone up by leaps and bounds. A smalt working-class house of four or five rooms in Wellington lets for anything boiween 15s and 30s a- week. 'High Wages and their .Ivxploitatiou' is t-he' significant title of a memorandum which the Secretary to the Department of Labour recently addressed to his chief.

"The tilt: necessary to get the little pigs of high wages comfortably ■ secured lias knocSkcd out the little pigs of high prices whiph are now bumping about all over the 7)luco making the gain of high \ya.gos of little avail. Whilst wugos liav'e° been Sai-seil 82 {X'l* cent., the cc&t of Jiving has moreiml from 25 to 50 per cent. "Finally, to crown the mysteries of theso tin the arbitration judges have never laid down any basis upon which they jsivo tneir awards. Sometimes they consider file profits of a trade, sometimes they say. profits have notlung to tlo Vrith wages,' Sometimes tliev demand proof that the ccst of living has been raised, sometimes they do not. No one knows what is goinif to happen.

So tho workman stands baffled ajid puzzled. He likes tlio idea of the -Arbitration Acts; lie lias I:o'burning desire lo return to the. tlaya o[ tho strike. But ho is determined to make some change. He, thinks it would be better if there was another president of tho court, or if ho hay preference ;i5 a, trade unionist in getting employment. " On the other luukl. the great majority of employers lire perfectly satisfied wil.ii the jaw as ;t stands, except in a. few minor details. The officials of employers' federations growl, make speeches, and get resolutions passed. I'iut that is a. mere flivorfion. [t Iji a kind of Sandow exercise for their federated health's sake. But even these federations have made it perfectly clear that, they do not desire to abolifliv tlio acts, nor the machinery of the courts nor file enforcement, of award;. "My own conclusion is thai N'ew Zealand having cut out for herself a, path by Arbi-. (ration Acts would be foolish lo turn back. She should adapt her future legislation to her past experiments. But, 011 the other hand, these experiments havo failed so usually to 'briny; her to- tho heart of her labour problems that- we need have no great <Ic3i.ro to copy them. Mr Tregcar, tho meat vaiiant of all the defonders of these acts, (heir real father, and the most devoted friend that labour has in New Zealand, has written: 'We have barely touched tV I fringe or tlio soiled economic garment.' Moreover, the. Now Zealand trnda unionist? are just beginning to consider the adviiiibility of forming a Labour |j»rijr. onr own, .because they suffer from every economic evil. which troubles lis. Is not th«<t- enpjigh?" i 1